fclifornia 
Atonal 
:ility 


ran 


THE  AZTEC  CALENDAR  STONE. 


MEXICO  AS  IT  IS 


NOTES  OF  A  RECENT  TOUR  IN  THAT  COUNTRY 


WITH     SOME     PRACTICAL     INFORMATION     FOR     TRAVELLERS 

IN    THAT    DIRECTION,    AS    ALSO    SOME    STUDY    OF 

THE     CHURCH     QUESTION 


BY 

• 

ALBERT    ZABRISKIE    GRAY 

AUTHOR    OF    "THE    LAND   AND   THE  LIFE,     OR    SKETCHES    AND    STUDIES    IN    PALES- 
TINE " 


NEW  YORK 

E.     P.     DUTTON    &    COMPANY 
713  BROADWAY 
,       1878 


COPYRIGHT, 

BY  ALBERT  ZABRISKIE  GRAY, 
1877- 


Stereotyped  at  the  Church  Charity  Foundation, 
Brooklyn,  L.  I. 


TO    ONE 
IN   WHOSE   CHARACTER   AND    CULTURE 

I    RECOGNIZE    THE    VINDICATION 
OF    INTELLIGENT    AND    CONSCIENTIOUS    TRAVEL 

THIS   LITTLE   VOLUME 

IS     MOST      FILIALLY 

INSCRIBED 


"A  good  land,  a  land  of  brooks  of  water,  of  fountains  and  depths, 
that  spring  out  of  valleys  and  hills  ;  a  land  of  wheat  and  barley,  and 
vines  and  fig-trees,  and  pomegranates  ;  a  land  of  oil  olive,  and  honey  ; 
a  land  wherein  thou  shalt  eat  bread  without  scarceness,  thou  shalt  not 
lack  anything  in  it  ;  a  land,  whose  stones  are  iron,  and  out  of  whose 
hills  thou  mayest  dig  brass." — DEUT.  viii.  7,  8,  9. 


CONTENTS. 


i. — Prefatory  Chapter      .....  9 

ii. — New  York  to  Vera  Cruz          .         .         .         .17 

in. — Vera  Cruz  to  Orizaba          .         .         .         .         27 

iv. — Orizaba  to  the  City  of  Mexico         .         .         -35 
v. — The  City  of  Mexico  .....         44 

vi. — The  Environs  of  the  City  of  Mexico       .         .     56 

vn. — The  Environs  of  the  City  of  Mexico  (continued)     65 

vin. — The  Environs  of  the  City  of  Mexico  (continued)     71 

ix. — The  Environs  of  the  City  of  Mexico  (concluded)     81 

x. — Puebla  and  Cholula       .         .         .         .  91 

xi. — Cholula  (continued)    .         .         .         .         .  .      103 

xn. — How  we  tried  to  get  to  Xalapa        .         .         .113 
xiu. — The  Church  in  Mexico       ,         .         .         .127 


"One  circumstance  must  be  observed  by  all  who  travel  in  Mexican 
territory.  There  is  not  one  human  being  or  passing  object  to  be  seen 
that  is  not  in  itself  a  picture,  or  which  would  not  form  a  good  subject 
for  the  pencil.  The  Indian  women,  with  then-  plaited  hair,  and  little 
children  slung  to  their  backs,  their  large  straw  hats,  and  petticoats  of 
two  colors — the  long  strings  of  arrieros  with  their  loaded  mules,  and 
swarthy,  wild-looking  faces — the  chance  horseman  who  passes  with  his 
sarape  of  many  colors,  his  high  ornamented  saddle,  Mexican  hat, 
silver  stirrups,  and  leathern  boots,  this  is  picturesque.  Salvator  Rosa 
and  Hogarth  might  have  travelled  here  to  advantage,  hand-in-hand  ; 
Salvator  for  the  sublime,  and  Hogarth  taking  him  up  where  the  sub- 
lime became  the  ridiculous." 

From  "  Life  in  Mexico,"  by  Madame  C—  de  la  B . 


PREFACE. 


APART  of  this  little  volume  first  appeared  as 
letters  in  the  Hartford  "  CHURCHMAN."  The 
completion  of  the  series,  and  their  presentation 
in  book-form,  was  urged  upon  the  writer  by  kind 
friends.  He  complies  with  their  wishes  the  more 
readily  when  he  reflects  that  possibly  some  service 
may  be  rendered  to  those  intending  to  visit  our_ 

sister  Republic  " 

This  service  may  be  increased  by  embodying  in 
these  prefatory  remarks  some  practical  information 
and  hints  with  regard  to  the  character  of  the  country 
and  the  pre-requisites  of  travel  and  residence  therein. 

Mexico  is  a  republic,  modeled  very  much  upon 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  It  consists  of 
twenty-seven  states,  one  territory,  and  what  is  called 
the  Federal  District,  which  includes  the  capital. 


10  PREFACE. 

The  total  area  is  more  than  twelve  hundred  thousand 
square  miles,  and  contains  a  population  of  about 
nine  millions,  of  which  a  large  proportion  is  aborigi- 
nal Aztec  blood. 

The  principal  exports  are  gold  and  silver,  in 
which  the  country  possesses  inexhaustible  wealth. 
It  also  produces  coffee,  tobacco,  sugar,  indigo, 
vanilla,  hides,  dye-woods,  fruits,  etc.  etc.  There  is 
no  richer  region  in  the  world ;  very  few  lands  are  as 
rich  in  all  that  constitutes  material  prosperity  and 
promise ;  and  this,  of  course,  is  largely  due  to  the 
fact  of  its  comprising,  in  its  comparatively  limited 
area,  almost  every  soil  and  every  temperature.  The 
great  range  of  the  Sierra  Madre  runs  through  the 
whole  country,  and  thus  affords  a  wonderful  variety 
of  vegetation. 

In  the  Tierra  Caliente  of  the  coast  you  have  the 
fecund  and  feverish  tropics.  On  the  mountain 
slopes  and  plateaux  you  can  enjoy  a  climate  of  per- 
fect salubrity  and  refreshment,  and  find  growing, 
side  by  side,  the  corn  and  the  banana,  the  palm  and 
the  tobacco ;  and  in  the  still  higher  regions — of  the 
capital  and  elsewhere — you  will  sleep  all  the  year 


PREFACE.  1 1 

under  a  blanket,  while  feasting  every  day  on  the 
lusciousness,  brought  by  a  few  hours  of  rail  from 
the  burning  plains  seven  thousand  feet  below.  And 
finally,  to  complete  the  charm,  you  have,  rising 
above  all  and  ever  refreshing,  the  majestic  peaks  of 
Orizava,  Popocatepetl  and  Istacyhuatl — with  their 
eternal  snows  —  more  than  fifteen  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea.  You  must  consequently  take  with 
you  some  variety  of  clothing,  in  preparation  for  all 
these  temperatures,  never  forgetting  the  overcoat 
and  rug  for  evening  and  night,  always  remembering 
that  it  is  better  to  have  too  much  than  too  little. 

The  history  of  the  country  is  soon  sketched, 
though  do  not  forget  to  take  with  you  a  small 
edition  of  Prescott's  charming  narrative,  as  also  a 
copy  of  Madame  Calderon's  fascinating  letters,  if  you 
can  procure  it.  Any  one  of  the  diaries  of  Cortes, 
Bernal  Diaz,  or  of  the  histories  of  Clavigero  and 
Herrera  would  add  immensely  to  the  interest  of  a 
visit  to  Mexico,  while  violating,  of  course,  a  canon 
of  travel  in  incumbrance. 

We  all  know  something  about  the  earliest  histori- 
cal inhabitants — the  Toltecs  and  the  Aztecs.  What 


1 2  PREFACE. 

New  Yorker  has  quite  forgotten  the  thrill  of  interest 
with  which  he  inspected  "the  Aztec  children," 
exhibited  many  years  ago  by  the  indefatigable  show- 
man, and  classed  in  memory  somewhat  promiscu- 
ously with  the  mysterious  "  What  is  it,"  the  uncom- 
fortable twins  of  Siam,  and  innumerable  other  lusi 
natures  of  the  age  ? 

Prescott  tells  us,  in  his  romantic  style,  df  how 
these  semi-civilized  Aztecs,  under  their  gorgeous  king, 
were  cruelly  conquered  and  completely  subjugated 
by  the  ruthless  valor  of  Cortes  and  his  little  band  of 
braves,  and  then  we  learn  how  at  once  decrepid 
Spain  began  to  feast  and  fatten  on  the  exuberant 
land,  enriching  her  Court,  her  Church,  her  com- 
merce in  the  life-blood  of  a  noble  race,  whose  souls' 
salvation  she  ever  professed  as  her  first  aim  ! 

The  Spaniards  retained  full  possession  of  the 
country  until  the  beginning  of  this  century,  when 
already  a  large,  mixed,  so-called  Mexican  popula- 
tion existed,  essentially  Spanish  in  character,  but 
imbued  with  many  of  the  revolutionary  ideas  of 
that  day,  which  were  soon  precipitated  by  the 
reckless  policy  of  the  mother  country  into  revolt. 


PREFACE.  13 

Its  first  leader  was  a  priest  named  Hidalgo,  who 
soon  sealed  his  patriotism  with  his  blood. 

The  country  was  declared  independent  in  1813, 
and  has  continued  in  a  pitiable  state  of  unrest  and 
warfare — both  internal  and  external — ever  since. 
The  internecine  struggles  have  been  principally  due 
to  the  unprincipled  ambition  of  such  men  as  Iturbide 
and  Santa  Anna,  and  alas,  Mexico  has  been  blessed 
with  but  few  rulers,  who,  like  Juarez,  seem  to  have 
comprehended  the  great  principles  of  their  blood- 
bought  Constitution !  The  Spaniards  were  not 
finally  expelled  till  1829,  the  same  year  in  which 
slavery  was  abolished. 

The  unhappy  country  has  suffered  from  several 
invasions.  The  first  of  any  importance  was  the  war 
with  the  United  States,  which  ended  with  the  indem- 
nified cession  by  Mexico  of  Texas,  Upper  California, 
etc.,  in  1848.  In  1862 -the  allied  powers  of  England, 
France  and  Spain  attempted  to  obtain  financial 
satisfaction  from  the  republic,  and  later,  under  the 
armed  'auspices  of  France,  Maximilian  was  declared 
Emperor.  His  short  but  brilliant  reign — three 
years  of  tragic  struggle — set  in  clouds  and  blood. 


14  PREFACE. 

He  was  captured  and  executed  in  June,  1867.  The 
country  resumed  its  republican  Constitution,  and 
enjoyed  a  period  of  comparative  peace  and  prosperity 
under  the  presidential  rule  of  Juarez.  It  is  only  of 
late  that  a  complete  revolution  has  again  been 
attempted;  and  to-day  we  have  the  unedifying 
spectacle  of  the  recent  and  able  President  Lerdo  de 
Tejada  a  powerless  exile,  the  brave  but  revolutionary 
General  Diaz  occupying  his  seat,  while  a  third  as- 
pirant, the  ex- Chief- Justice  Iglesias  is  also  among 
"  the  outs,"  and  engaged  in  issuing  pronunciamentos 
at  a  safe  distance. 

It  is  estimated  that  the  poor,  groaning  country 
has  suffered  a  change  of  rule,  on  an  average,  once 
a  year  since  its  independent  existence. 

With  regard,  again,  to  a  few  practical  hints 
for  those  intending  to  visit  the  country,  let  us 
briefly  say :  The  best  time  for  a  tour  in  Mexico  is 
the  winter — the  safest  from  fevers — though  at  any 
season  it  is  best  not  to  linger  any  longer  than  abso- 
lutely necessary  upon  the  coast  You  can  go  by 
way  of  New  Orleans — making  a  shorter  sea-trip — 
or  from  New. York  via  Havana,  in  which  case  a 


PREFACE. 

passport  is  required.  American,  English,  or  French 
gold  will  take  you  anywhere,  and  give  a  comfortable 
premium  besides,  leaving  you  under  the  pleasant 
impression  that  you  are  making  money  all  the  time. 
But  of  course  you  will  take  a  letter  of  credit,  which, 
following  the  above  premium  rule,  will  load  your 
pockets  and  trunks  with  Mexican  bullion,  and  keep 
you  somewhat  nervous  in  brigand  neighborhoods. 

Which  leads  to  one  final  and  friendly  advice: 
take  no  nervousness  with  you.  Take  patience, 
good-temper,  charitable  judgment,  considerate  kind- 
ness— take,  in  shortJyour  Christianity  with  you}  and 
you  cannot  fail  to  have  a  most  delightful  time. 

All  travellers  may  be  classified  under  two  heads : 
the  men  who  have  been  everywhere,  passed  their 
best  years  Ln  genteel  wanderings,  and  yet  have 
never  really  seen  anything,  and  can  only  be  aroused 
to  enthusiasm  by  the  discussion  of  such  a  question 
as  the  comparative  merits  of  table  d'hotes  ;  and 
again,  those  who  cannot  take  a  turn  down  the  street 
without  a  fruitful  harvest  of  observation,  and  to 
whom  one  stroll  amid  the  stimulating  scenes  of  a 
foreign  land  is  almost  an  education 


i6 


PREFACE. 


To  the  former  a  trip  to  Mexico  would  be  simply 
adding  another — perhaps  a  somewhat  stranger  feather 
to  the  cap  of  voyager  conquest  and  conceit — to 
the  latter  it  would  prove  a  feast  forever. 


II. 

NEW    YORK    TO    VERA    CRUZ. 

IT  may  be  said  to  require  a  winter  trip  southward 
to  appreciate  the  extent  and  advantages  of  our 
own  country.  To  leave  New  York  in  a  winter 
storm,  and  in  sixty-five  hours  to  glide  into  a  sister 
city  revelling  in  spring  sunshine  and  flowers — in 
other  words,  to  travel  1,500  miles  in  order  to  take  a 
steamer  from  New  Orleans — makes  one  realize  what 
a  wonderful  land  we  live  in  !  A  five  miles  walk  in 
the  Mammoth  Cave  shows  us  again  that  even  "  under 
the  earth,"  American  nature  keeps  up  her  grand 
scale ;  and  a  visit  to  the  motley  Louisiana  Legislature 
convinces  one  that  in  radical  changes  American 
humanity  is  resolved  not  to  be  below  the  mark. 

New  Orleans  is  a  fair  city,  and  deserves  a  better 
lot  than  she  has  found  in  these  latter  days  ;  but  we 
rejoiced  to  remark  a  hopeful  spirit  in  her  better  peo- 


1 8  MEXICO  AS   IT  IS. 

pie,  and  a  conviction  that  the  era  of  "  carpet-bag  " 
misrule  is  nearly  past. 

Certainly  no  one  can  stroll  through  the  streets  and 
squares  of  her  old  French  quarter  without  yielding 
to  a  charm,  that  carries  one  dreamily  over  land  and 
sea  to  many  a  distant  scene  and  delightful  hour  of 
wandering  in  regions  so  little  known  to  the  rushing 
American — the  south  of  France.  The  old  cathedral 
and  the  buildings  about  it — formerly  occupied  by 
the  French  authorities — are  alone  worth  a  visit  from 
any  distance.  We  have  nothing  like  them  elsewhere 
in  "the  States."  The  square  around  which  they 
stand  is  kept  in  that  precise  French  style  which  in 
a  land  like  ours,  has  at  least  the  striking  attraction 
of  contrast 

And  the  people  themselves — I  mean  of  course  the 
Creole  part  of  them — seem  to  cling  to  their  former 
nationality.  We  were  informed  that  many  of  them 
are  never  seen  out  of  the  French  quarter,  where  in- 
deed French  names  and  French  signs  meet  you  at 
every  step. 

And,  before  leaving  the  old  city,  we  would  speak  a 
word  of  almost  unqualified  commendation  with  regard 


NEW  YORK  TO  VERA  CRUZ.         19 

to  its  principal  hotel.  We  were  told  that  the  St. 
Charles  is  "  run  "  with  but  little  profit  to  its  propri- 
etors and  managers,  and  they  certainly  deserve  great 
credit  for  the  excellence  of  everything  connected  with 
it.  To  one  seeking  a  mild  winter  climate,  and  who 
has  suffered  from  the  discomforts  of  Florida  and  other 
parts  of  the  South,  this  word  may  be  of  service.  We 
speak  of  Florida  as  we  knew  some  parts  of  it  two  or 
three  years  ago. 

The  steamers  from  New  Orleans  to  Vera  Cruz  are 
of  the  well-known  "  Alexandre  "  line,  starting  from 
New  York.  Compared  with  our  trans- Atlantic 
steamers,  they  are  small  and  only  tolerably  comfort- 
able. The  great  drawback  to  the  voyage  is  their 
stopping  at  intermediate  ports,  and  thus  giving  the 
nauseated  traveller  two  unnecessary  days.  There  is 
nothing  to  see  or  to  do  at  these  ports.  You  lie  off  in 
the  open  roadstead,  two  or  three  miles  from  shore, 
and  of  course  roll  most  unhappily  at  the  slightest 
suggestion  of  Boreas.  You  have  hardly  time  to  go 
ashore,  and  indeed  are  tantalized  by  the  distant  and 
inviting  verdure  of  the  Mexican  tropics.  What  is 
most  urgently  demanded  for  the  tourist  in  that  direc- 


20  MEXICO   AS  IT  IS. 

tion  is  a  first-class  line  of  steamers  running  directly 
from  New  Orleans,  or  from  New  York  to  New  Or- 
leans, and  return,  stopping  only  at  Havana  and  Vera 
Cruz. 

There  is  not  a  decent  harbor  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 
As  our  good  captain  remarked,  '  If  your  vessel  does 
come  to  any  grief,  you  would  hardly  know  what 
port  to  make  for.' 

The  city  of  Vera  Cruz — the  main  port  of  the  re- 
public on  the  Atlantic  side — lies  on  the  open  coast, 
only  protected  from  the  "  wild  waves,"  by  some  mer- 
ciless reefs  and  the  picturesque  island  fort  of  San 
Juan  d'Ulloa,  where  the  Spaniards  under  Cortes 
first  landed.  As  is  the  fashion  at  this  season  of 
the  Mexican  year,  we  arrived  in  "  a  Norther." 
But  fortune,  as  we  know,  ever  "  favors  the  brave," 
and  a  brave  man  did  we  have  in  our  captain.  He 
is  said  to  be  the  only  man  of  the  Line  who  can  do 
what  he  did  that  rough  morning.  Being  a  pilot  as 
well,  he  took  his  vesssl  right  in  between  the  reefs  and 
through  the  gale,  and  brought  her  to  her  anchorage 
without  a  scratch.  It  was  a  beautiful  and  thrilling 
thing  to  see.  There  were  but  four  vessels  in  the 


NEW  YORK  TO  VERA  CRUZ.         21 

anchorage;  among  them,  as  we  were  informed, 
lay  half  of  the  Mexican  navy,  viz.,  two  small, 
neat-looking  vessels,  about  the  size  of  our  revenue 
cutters. 

Once  landed — not  without  a  surf-drenching,  how- 
ever— at  the  Customs  quay,  you  are  met  and  sur- 
rounded at  once  with  the  sights  and  scenes,  the 
novelties  and  oddities  of  a  widely-differing  civiliza- 
tion. 

The  old  town  of  "  the  Conquerors,"  fondly  named 
by  them  Villa  Rica  de  la  Vera  Cruz,  has  been  much 
abused  by  many  disgusted  travellers,  arriving  and 
departing  from  its  sea-beaten  and  sand-girt  walls, 
and  we  must  admit  that,  with  its  .glaring  white- 
wash, and  open  street- drains,  and  clouds  of  scavenger 
buzzards,  its  thousand  smells,  and  sickliest  repu- 
tation, it  may  be  not  inaptly  compared  to  a  "  whited 
sepulchre;"  but  withal  we  have  rarely  seen  a 
town  more  picturesque — well  and  compactly  built — 
one  of  the  few  cities  left  in  North  America  that  have 
retained  their  walls;  its  many  domes  and  glaring 
colors  giving  a  semi- Oriental  aspect  to  its  architec- 
ture, and  its  patioed  houses,  the  tropical  vegetation 


22  MEXICO    AS   IT  IS. 

of  its  squares  and  alameda,  adding  a  charm  to  the 
whole,  only  to  be  experienced  in  those  fair  and  fatal 
southern  lands. 

But  we  would  hasten  to  qualify  the  last  alarming 
adjective  by  remarking,  that  during  the  winter 
months,  or  in  other  words,  the  prevalence  of  "  Nor- 
thers," the  terrible  scourge  of  the  "Vomito"  is 
comparatively  little  felt,  and  scarcely  to  be  dreaded. 
Wherefore  remember,  impatient  and  irritated  trav- 
eller, tossed  and  tumbled  and  literally  thrown  ashore 
by  the  force  of  whistling  wind  and  regardless  surf, 
that  this  very  discomfort  is  thy  salvation  !  Without 
these  forcible  reminders  of  northern  inclemency, 
Vera  Cruz  would  be  all  but  uninhabitable,  and  thy 
curious  visit  utterly  out  of  the. question. 

As  it  was,  we  were  obliged  to  remain  in  the  quaint 
old  city  about  a  week  altogether,  and  were  assured  we 
ran  no  risk  in  doing  so,  though  we  believe  it  is  es- 
sential to  exercise  the  greatest  caution  at  all  seasons. 
Nothing  can  be  more  interesting  than  a  stroll  through 
the  straight  and  narrow  streets,  for  the  Spaniards  seem 
to  have  learned  at  least  one  good  lesson  from  the  na- 
tives, in  laying  out  their  towns  with  great  regularity. 


NEW  YORK  TO  VERA  CRUZ.         23 

Looking  into  dark,  and  we  must  add,  rather 
dirty  rooms,  you  will  see  the  native  women  on  their 
knees  most  industriously  kneading  their  tortillas, 
using  the  same  curious  low,  inclined  stone  stand,  on 
which  their  mothers  worked  long  before  the  historic 
era  of  the  Montezumas.  Indeed,  in  features,  dress,  / 
and  customs,  the  several  millions  of  native  Indians 
seem  to  have  undergone  as  little  change  as  the  desert 
Arabs.  The  modifications  are  all  seen  in  the  two  or 


three  millions  of  mixed  blood,  which^  are  in  fact  the 


restless,    revolutionary   and    governing   race   of  the 


country. 

But  to  pass  down  the  sun-baked  street  a  little  far- 
ther, let  us  pause  for  a  moment  to  examine  the  work- 
ings of  this  cigar-factory.  Here  are  half  a  dozen  or 
more  of  men  and  boys  diligently  and  deftly  selecting, 
rolling,  pointing,  etc.,  from  not  very  tempting  heaps  of 
tobacco  rags,  finishing  off  those  neat  ends  with  some 
very  doubtful-looking  grease,  and  one  of  these  indivi- 
duals, (only  one,  I  am  happy  to  say)  using  occasionally 
his  tongue  in  the  operation.  A  little  farther  on  we 
come  upon  the  washing-square,  and,  as  usual  in 
Southern  lands,  we  find  a  very  picturesque  scene. 


24  MEXICO   AS  IT  IS. 

A  well-arranged  and  clean-looking  series  of  troughs, 
under  cover,  and  filled  with  pure  looking  water,  and 
the  whole  enlivened  by  the  merry  laugh  and  jest  of 
the  many  brown  and  bright-eyed  and  busy  lavan- 
deras. 

And,  speaking  of  water,  we  cannot  omit  allusion 
to  an  establishment  of  baths  we  visited,  one  of  the 
most  luxurious  places  we  ever  saw,  almost  fulfilling 
the  ideal  of  "  marble  halls  "  and  tropic  glory.  It  is 
near  the  impressive  old  monastic  building  and  credit- 
able collection  of  the  Public  Library. 

There  is  one  thing  in  which  Vera  Cruz  is  not 
deficient,  and  indeed,  it  is  about  the  only  article  of 
which  Mexico  seems  to  enjoy  an  embarras  de 
richesses,  viz.,  churches.  The  disestablishment  of  the 
Church  and  the  confiscation  of  ecclesiastical  property 
has,  of  course,  rendered  it  impossible  to  sustain  the 
extraordinary  number  of  churches  and  convents 
with  which  the  generation  of  Cortes  and  their 
successors  have  covered  the  land.  It  is  a  com- 
mon thing  to  find  of  several  in  an  urban  or 
rural  neighborhood,  the  half  abandoned.  How  they 
still  maintain  so  many  is  a  mystery,  and  yet  not 


NEW  YORK  TO  VERA  CRUZ.        2$ 

much  of  one,  after  all,  to  him  who  understands  some- 
what the  workings  of  Rome. 

The  cathedral  of  Vera  Cruz  is  an  imposing  edifice, 
both  externally  and  internally.  The  external  effect  is 
rendered  not  a  little  bizarre  by  the  black  mass  of  car- 
rion birds,  to  which  we  have  before  alluded,  and  which, 
especially  toward  nightfall,  are  seen  to  settle  on  domes 
and  pinnacles,  and  indeed  on  every  salient  summit ; 
and  weirdly  significant,  several  of  the  stronger  ones 
pushing  their  way  to  a  perch  on  the  highest  point  of 
the  cross  itself. 

Internally  the  church  is  large,  and  generally  plain, 
but  about  its  principal  altars  rich  in  precious  metals. 
Here  will  we  begin  to  realize  a  little  of  that  fabulous 
wealth,  with  which  the  conquistadores  sought,  for 
their  souls'  sake,  tarnished  by  so  many  crimes,  to 
buy  a  churchly  indulgence ;  but  a  large  part  of 
which  the  too  willing  Church  has  been  unable  to 
preserve  from  the  necessities  of  later  and  less  scrupu- 
lous criminality. 

Before  leaving  Vera  Cruz,  and  for  the  sake  of 
common  charity,  let  me  warn  brother  tourists  against 
a  hotel,  into  which  they  may,  by  accident,  stray,  viz., 


26  MEXICO   AS  IT  IS. 

the  "  Hotel  des  Diligencias."  It  seems  to  be  man- 
aged a  good  deal  upon  the  principle  of  the  "  golden 
egg  "  story.  Its  rooms  are  among  the  best  in  town, 
and  its  situation  one  of  the  finest,  but  there  is  an 
evident  and  painful  intention  on  the  part  of  the 
female  proprietor  to  make  the  most  of  the  disadvan- 
tages under  which  you  labor  in  claiming  her  hospi- 
tality. 

And  this  leads  us  to  remark  more  seriously  that 
the  drainage  arrangements  of  this  hotel,  as  indeed  of 
almost  every  house  and  every  place  we  saw  in 
Mexico,  are  simply  execrable  and  deadly.  If  no 
other  malarious  reason  existed,  this  horror  of  filth 
would  be  enough  of  itself  to  breed  a  pestilence.  De- 
cency would  forbid  further  details  of  the  nuisance, 
but  decency  makes  it  a  duty  to  protest  and  to  warn 
against  an  evil  which  must  be  impairing  so  widely  and 
so  deeply  the  health  and  prospects  of  the  nation. 


III. 

VERA   CRUZ   TO   ORIZABA. 

THE  city  of  Vera  Cruz  lies  on  a  sandy  and  for- 
bidding stretch  of  coast,  but  with  nothing  in 
its  apparent  character  to  indicate  the  causes  of  its 
great  unhealthiness.  The  original  town  of  Villa  Rica 
was  built  a  little  to  the  north  of  the  present  site,  and 
we  believe  the  fatal  vomito  was  not  known  till  some 
time  after  the  conquest.  There  seems  to  be  no 
topographical  or  other  reason  why  the  city — the 
main  seaport  of  the  Republic,  and  indeed  the  key  to , 
its  whole  Atlantic  coast — should  have  been  erected 
where  it  is.  There  are  several  other  points  more 
sheltered,  and  in  every  way  favorable ;  but  such  se- 
lections, as  the  student  of  history  soon  learns,  are 
more  often  made  from  superstitious  or  traditional 
than  from  physical  reasons.  It  is  distant  about 


28  MEXICO   AS  IT  IS. 

two  hundred  and  eighty  miles  from  the  City  of 
Mexico. 

Modern  and  mainly  English  enterprise  has  con- 
structed a  railway  oVef  that  distance,"~whlch  may  be 
called  one  of  the  wonders  and  delights  of  the  world ; 
its  eighteen  hours  of  transit,  however,  being  less 
wonderful  than  the  story  told  of  Montezuma,  that 
his  table  was  re*gularly  supplied  with  fish  caught  in 
the  Gulf  the  day  before  !  This  railway  to  the  capital 
may  be  said  to  traverse  almost  every  clime,  showing 
the  unparalleled  advantages  of  the  country.  From 
the  tropical  exuberance  of  the  Tierre  Caliente  to  the 
temperate  slopes  of  Orizaba,  and  the  fertility  of  the 
Mexican  plateau,  the  traveller  passes  with  amazing 
facility  and  impression,  the  only  drawback  to  the 
journey  being  found  in  the  fact  that  the  spirit  of 
the  Mexican  age  has  seen  fit  to  import  for  the 
benefit  of  the  above-mentioned  traveller  the  most  un- 
comfortable of  old-fashioned  American  cars. 

As  to  the  hour  of  starting,  we  fancy  there  will  be 
but  one  voice  among  all  respectable  readers  of  this 
chapter.  It  was  simply  heathenish.  The  one  passen- 
ger-train from  Vera  Cruz  to  the  city  of  Mexico 


VERA  CRUZ  TO   ORIZABA.  29 

leaves  about  midnight,*  the  sole  advantage  to  the 
tourist  being  that  it  makes  his  passage  over  the 
torrid  plains  more  comfortable ;  but  of  course  he 
must  lose  his  first  fascinating  impression  of  their 
luxuriant  beauty. 

And  here  comes  the  first  startling  reminder  as  to 
the  insecurity  of  the  country.  One  entire  car  is 
devoted  to  the  escort  of  fifty  troops,  whose  duty  it 
is  to  see  you  safely  through  the  regions  of  lawless- 
ness and  rebellion — either  term  doing  as  well  as  the 
other ! 

Your  fellow-passengers  consist  of  a  few  adventu- 
rous spirits  like  yourself,  who,  tired  of  ordinary 
humdrum  travel,  would  willingly  incur  a  little  risk  to 
visit  "  the  halls  of  the  Montezumas,"  and,  besides 
them,  a  not  very  prepossessing  number  of  the  pre- 
sent native  occupants  of  those  so-called  halls.  With 
their  dusky  faces,  their  gorgeous  sombreros,  and 
other  caballcro  dress,  and  their  incessant  cigarettes, 
we  must  observe  they  do  not  form  the  most  agreea- 
ble addition  to  the  company,  and  we  could  not  but 

*  Or  rather,  left,  at  the  time  of  our  visit. 


3O  MEXICO    AS   IT  IS. 

regret  to  observe  how  soon  some  of  our  American 
compatriots,  who  would  feel  most  aggrieved  to  be 
denied  the  designation  of  gentlemen,  adopted  the 
rude  and  vulgar  custom  of  smoking  in  cars  and 
dining-rooms,  regardless  of  the  presence  of  ladies. 
In  such  a  motley  company  we  rode  through  the 
long,  dark  hours  of  the  tropic  night,  solaced  indeed 
by  the  spicy  breaths  and  breezes  that  came  through 
the  open  windows  to  our  dreamy  sense. 

It  was  six  hours  to  Orizaba,  and  from  the  glare 
of  Vera  Cruz,  from  the  gloom  of  our  night's  ride,  we 
found  ourselves  in  the  early  morn  amid  a  scene  of 
such  marvellous  beauty  as  was  itself  much  more 
than  worth  our  thousands  of  miles  of  journeying 
over  land  and  sea.  It  was  a -revelation  of  natural 
glory.  It  was  Switzerland  beside  Andalusia,  Nonvay 
by  the  Delta,  England  and  Italy  side  by  side.  Above 
us  towered  grand  mountains,  bold-peaked,  yet  clad 
in  living  green,  until  their  loftiest  summit,  known  as 
Orizaba,  eternally  white  with  snow,  reached  an  ele- 
vation far  beyond  the  highest  point  of  Europe. 

The  city  itself  is  situated  about  four  thousand  feet 
above  the  sea,  and  thus  enjoys  a  perfect  climate  all 


VERA   CRUZ   TO   ORIZABA.  31 

the  year  round,  neither  sultry,  as  it  is  lower  down  at 
Cordova  and  Vera  Cruz,  nor  almost  exhaustingly 
rarefied  as  it  is  on  the  higher  plateau  of  Mexico. 
On  the  surrounding  plains  and  slopes  grow  luxuriantly 
the  products  of  almost  every  clime — truly  "  a  land  of 
corn  and  wine  and  oil,  wherein  thou  mayest  eat 
bread  without  scarceness,  and  out  of  whose  hills  thou 
mayest  dig  brass."  It  was  everywhere  like  a  garden 
of  beauty  and  fertility,  with  the  quaint  old  city  nes- 
tled most  picturesquely  and  invitingly  in  the  midst. 

We  soon  found  ourselves  in  an  exceedingly  com- 
fortable hotel,  and  were  thus  enabled  to  recommend 
Orizaba  as  one  of  the  most  attractive  winter  resorts 
we  have  ever  had  the  delight  of  visiting.  Certainly, 
when  considering  the  climate,  the  scenery,  the  com- 
fort and  reasonableness  of  living,  we  can  hardly  recall 
any  spot  in  either  the  East  or  West  so  advantageous. 
A  walk  through  £he  clean  and.  regular  streets  re- 
veals all  the  charming  characteristics  of  Spanish  life — 
the  large,  low,  iron-grated  windows,  with  dark-hued 
senoras  idly  looking  out,  and  glimpses  beyond  of 
sunny  patios,  luxuriant  with  flowers  and  plashing 
fountains.  And  then  the  old  churches,  glaring  and 


32  MEXICO   AS   IT  IS. 

crumbling  without,  tawdry  within,  a  brace  of  not  un- 
happy-looking cripples  at  the  door,  and  inside  the 
usual  assortment  of  mantillaed  dames  and  mumbling 
beggars,  a  drowsiness  and  a  dreaminess  of  both  faith 
and  climate  investing  the  whole  with  a  charm  which 
no  soul,  with  any  music,  can  resist. 

Stop  with  me  a  moment  in  this  old  lane  leading 
out  from  the  suburbs.  It  is  narrow,  neglected,  grass- 
grown.  On  each  side  stands  a  half-ruined  church 
or  monastery,  nearly  overrun  with  tropic  growth. 
And  so  all  along,  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach,  ex- 
tends this  most  exuberant  and  radiant  vegetation — a 
vista  of  natural  glory,  animated  with  the  continual 
passing  to  and  fro  of  the  natives  in  their  picturesque 
national  costumes.  The  vanity  displayed  by^some 
of  the  young  caballeros  is  so  genuine,  and,  we 
may  say,  unaffected,  as  to  be  simply  amusing.  Both 
their  horses  and  themselves  are  «tricked  out  in  the 
gayest  style  from  head  to  foot ;  their  sombreros  like 
a  parasol  in  size,  and  glittering  with  gold  or  silver,  a 
man  being  known  in  Mexico  very  much  by  ti\e.fagon 
of  his  hat.  They  are  all  more  or  less  armed,  and 
the  richer  ones  followed  by  mounted  servants,  who 


VERA  CRUZ  TO   ORIZABA.  33 

are  the  fainter  reproductions  of  themselves.  Their 
fiery  little  horses  seem  the  perfection  of  docility,  speed, 
endurance,  and  fidelity.  We  saw  one  whose  rider 
was  hopelessly  drunk,  and  we  hardly  knew  which 
more  to  admire,  the  wonderful  way  the  poor  sot 
kept  his  seat,  or  the  gentle  forbearance  with  which 
the  nobler  brute  accommodated  himself  to  his  mas- 
ter's condition. 

But  amidst  all  this  animation  of  scene  and  charac- 
ter,  we  could  not  be  blind  to  the  sad  evidences  of 
national  instability  and  decay.  The  dilapidations  are 
from  intestine  feud ;  the  neglected  churches  show  the 
lapse  of  faith,  the  lounging  senoras  and  the  dandyt 
caballcros  mark  the  lack  of  high'er  aim  and  ambition, 
which  is  confirmed  by  the  abject  appearance  of 
the  Indian  peasantry ;  and  altogether,  our  afternoon's 
walk  in  Orizaba  leaves  us  with  impressions  as  sad  or 
itshumanity  as  they  are  fascinating  of  its  site  and 
scener 


MOUNTAIN    SCENERY    ON    THE    TABLE-LAND    IN    MEXICO. 


IV. 

ORIZABA  TO   THE   CITY   OF  MEXICO. 

IT  was  on  a  perfect  Spring  morning  that  we  reluc- 
tantly left  Orizaba  for  the  City  of  Mexico — a  sky 
of  glorious  intensity,  setting  off  the  snowy  diadem  of 
Orizaba's  "breathless  peak,"  the  air  an  elixir  of 
health  and  exhilaration,  and  every  tropic  blade  and 
leaf  shimmering  in  the  early  dawn  and  dew. 

We  were  ever  ascending  —  by  gradually  steeper 
grades,  till,  on  the  mountain  side,  it  became  212  feet 
to  the  mile  —  passing  through  fertile  valleys  and  by 
sparkling  streams,  near  high-walled  haciendas,  by 
meek-looking  herds  of  cattle,  and  quite  as  meek- 
looking  Indian  peasants,  interspersed  with  much 
fiercer-looking  Mexican  rancheros  or  other  pictu- 
resque horsemen. 

Soon  began  for  us  the  enjoyment  of  magnificent 
views.  We  were  literally  climbing  up  a  mountain 


36  MEXICO  AS  IT  IS. 

more  than  8,000  feet  high,  by  a  zigzag  way,  that  we 
would  call  wonderful  for  a  diligence  road  in  the  Alps 
of  Europe,  but  which  by  rail,  becomes  a  stupendous 
feat  of  engineering.  Hewn  out  of  the  mountain  side, 
(Spanning  terrible  ravines  by  iron  bridges,  over  which 
look  into  an  almost  sheer  thousand  feet  or  more, 

[the  propulsion  by  a  double-engine  locomotive  of 
marvellous  power,  and  everything  conducted  with 
that  perfect  order  and  precision,  which  gives  such 
confidence  everywhere  in  English  management,  this 
railway  can  certainly  be  considered  one  of  the  won- 

|  ders  of  the  world  ;  and  the  many  millions  of  its  cost 

'  do  not  seem  very  much  after  you  .have  seen  the  dif- 
ficulties, and  the  way  in  which  they  have  been  sur- 

jmounted.  The  importance  and  value  of  its  construc- 
tion is  shown  in  the  fact,  as  stated  by  an  official,  that  its 

I  earnings  for  one  month — January  of  this  year — were 

'  $560,000. 

"  But  we  began  to  speak  of  the  glorious  views  as  we 
ascended,  of  fertile  valleys,  cultivated  plains,  a  chang- 
ing, yet  ever  luxuriant  vegetation,  here  and  there  a 
town  or  hamlet  with  its  characteristic  variegation  of 
color,  and  conspicuous  church-towers  and  campaniles 


ORIZABA  TO   THE  CITY   OF  MEXICO.  37 

and  all  around  the  beautiful  mountain  peaks,  and  all 
and  everything  rejoicing  in  the  ceaseless  summer  sun  ! 

Then  we  would  creep  through  narrow  defiles, 
with  crystal  streams  brawling  happily  beside  us,  and 
the  rich  mountain  flora  glistening  in  the  morning 
dew. 

The  air  was  bracingly  keen.  It  was  difficult  to 
believe  we  had  just  left  the  sultry  tropics.  It  com- 
pleted the  revival  of  Orizaba ;  when  we  reached  the 
station  at  the  summit  of  the  pass,  called  Boca  del 
Monte,  we  were  in  a  condition  that  boded  ill  for  the 
breakfast  larder. 

But  be  it  said,  to  the  credit  of  whomsoever  it  con- 
cerns, that  we  found  here,  as  everywhere  at  the  eat- 
ing-places on  this  road  and  its  branches,  a  most 
abundant  and  satisfactory  provision,  and  at  reason- 
able charges — a  provision  that  should  shame  nearly 
all  the  American  part  of  the  way  from  New  York  to 
the  Mexican  capital. 

Such  coffee,  we  fancy,  never  entered  the  wildest 
dreams  of  a  railroad  caterer  in  the  United  States ; 
and,  indeed,  throughout  Mexico  we  may  say,  the 
coffee  is  a  beverage  of  elysian  delight  We  felt  we 


38  MEXICO    AS  IT  IS. 

never  could  get  enough  of  it,  but  were  obliged  to 
content  ourselves  with  three  times  a  day ;  and  such 
are  its  properties,  as  perhaps  also  of  the  climate,  that 
it  does  not  seem  to  affect  you  in  the  least  beyond  sat- 
isfactory stimulation. 

And  while  speaking  of  the  railway  travel  in  Mexico, 
it  would  be  more  than  remiss  not  to  allude  to  the 
perfect  courtesy  and  attention  of  all  connected  with 
it.  The  principal  employes  of  the  road  are  English" 
and  American,  and  it  seemed  a  delight  to  them  to  do 
anything  in  their  power  to  facilitate  our  plans  and 
pleasure—thereby  furnishing  an  example,  and  per- 
haps  also  affording  a  warning  to  railway  officialsjslse- 
where,  the  world  over. 

And  we  cannot  forbear,  also,  in  this  connection,  very 
pardonably  we  trust,  mentioning  the  case  of  one,  with 
whom  at  this  mountain  station/we_became  wry  pl^s— 
antly  Acquainted,  which  shows  indeed  how  fror.^ 
indusgcan  make  its  way  anywhere^  even  in  such  a 

disordered  country  as  MexTca 

A  man  of  humble  origin,  an  Irish  Roman  Catholic, 
but  of  strong,  sturdy  character,  he  came  to  Mexico 
as  a  poor  laborer,  and  is  now,  only  a  few  years 


ORIZABA   TO   THE   CITY   OF   MEXICO.  39 

later,  in  an  important  and  confidential  position  of 
inspection,  and  in  receipt  of  a  salary  of  several 
thousand  dollars.  Truly  the  world  is  wide,  and 
"  there  is  always  room  in  the  front  ranks  !" 

After  leaving  Boca  del  Monte,  the  exact  elevation 
of  which  is  said  to  be  8,326  feet  above  the  sea,  there 
is  a  slight  descent  until  you  come  to  the  level  of  the 
great  plateau  or  valley  of  Mexico.  The  elevation  of 
the  capital  itself  is  stated  as  about  7,500  feet. 

The  change  is  very  marked  from  the  bold  moun- 
tain region — so  rich  in  vegetation  from  its  greater 
moisture — to  the  immense  and  almost  monotonous 
plain,  looking  at  this  dry  season  of  the  year  painfully 
parched. 

But  its  fertility,  notwithstanding,  seems  unbounded, 
producing  frequent  and  vast  crops  of  barley,  corn, 
etc.,  and  as  you  near  the  City  of  Mexico,  being  given 
up  almost  entirely  to  the  cultivation  of  the  pulque 
plant,  the  commercial  value  of  which  may  be  esti- 
mated from  the  fact  that  it  pays  in  freightage  to  the 
railway  company  $1,000  a  day. 

There  are  mysteries  of  all  kinds  in  this  world  of 
ours,  and  not  among  the  least  of  them  is  this 


40  MEXICO  AS  IT  IS. 

national  Mexican  beverage  of  pulque — to  the  natives 
what  claret  is  to  the  Frenchman,  beer  to  the  German, 
ale  to  the  Englishman,  and  we  might  remark,  what 
whiskey  sadly  is  to  the  American. 

But  all  these  liquids  are,  to  say  the  least,  not 
repulsive  in  taste ;  whereas  pulque,  to  the  uninitiated, 
is  of  all  sour  things  the  most  disgusting. 

We  are  ready  to  admit  that  it  may  be,  in  modera- 
tion, innocuous  and  even  wholesome ;  indeed,  we 
saw  but  very  few  men  improperly  under  its  influence, 
and  they  were  only  stupidly  helpless,  never  violent 

We  can  believe  also  that,  prepared  specially  for  the 
richer  classes,  it  may  taste  no  worse  than  an  ordinary 
condition  of  "  spoiledness  " — all  this  we  can  readily 
suppose,  and  we  may  conclude  its  consideration  with 
the  charitable  supposition  that,  being  cast,  with  a 
pig-skin  full  of  it,  upon  a  desert  rock  in  the  Pacific, 
might  perhaps  lead  to  a  more  grateful  appreciation 
of  one  of  the  possibilities  of  nature  ! 

It  was  most  interesting,  as  we  rode  along,  to 
notice  the  haciendas  and  towns  near  our  line  of 
travel,  or  far  away  upon  the  mountain  slopes. 

The  former  were  like  villages  in  themselves,  each 


ORIZABA  TO  THE   CITY  OF    MEXICO.  4! 

containing  a  church  and  quite  a  population  of 
servants  and  retainers.  The  aristocratic  owners 
rarely  visit  them,  and  more  rarely  reside  in  them. 
Indeed,  this  would  increase  the  chances  of  at- 
tack from  the  ubiquitous  brigands,  who  have  an 
uncomfortable  way  in  this  republican  country  of 
carrying  off  a  rich  man  to  their  dens  and  keeping 
him  there  until  a  good,  fat  ransom  has  been  paid ; 
and  happy  the  Dives  who  returns  in  full  possession  of 
all  his  members ! 

These  haciendas  are  all,  therefore,  well  walled  and 
fortified,  and  carry  on  at  times  very  respectable 
battles  and  sieges.  They  are  usually  situated  on 
immense  estates,  and  even  under  all  these  adverse 
circumstances,  yield  great  revenues  to  their  owners.  . 

The  larger  hamlets  and  towns  are  very  picturesque 
and  attractive,  at  a  distance ;  but  are  said  to  be,  or 
until  recently  to  have  been,  very  nests  of  robbery 
and  crime. 

In  fact,  at  every  station  of  our  road,  we  observed 
a  body  of  volunteer  cavalry  drawn  up  in  brilliant 
array  to  protect  us  from  the  possible  raids  of  neigh- 
boring banditti. 


42  MEXICO   AS  IT  IS. 

The  moralizing  reader  may  be  interested  to  learn 
the  sequel,  if  not  the  conclusion,  to  this  formidable 
display  of  friendliness  to  the  government  and  our- 
selves. 

As  we  returned  over  this  way  a  few  weeks  later, 
all  these  brave  and  patriotic  protectors  had  become 
banditti  themselves,  or  had  "pronounced,"  which  is 
about  the  same  thing  ! 

The  tropic  day  was  waning  towards  its  glowing 
close  as  we  neared  "the  city  of  the  Montezumas." 

As  if  to  welcome  us  befittingly,  great,  gorgeous 
banks  of  clouds,  relieved  by  every  delicateness  of 
celestial  hue,  stretched  their  regal  canopy  from 
mountain-top  to  mountain-top  again. 

Twin  queens  of  tropic  peaks,  Popocatepetl  and 
Iztacihuatl,  flushed  a  roseate  greeting  to  our  stranger 
footsteps  !  Glorious  in  elevation,  (being  some  3,000 
feet  higher  than  the  monarch  of  all  Europe's  moun- 
tains,) crowned  with  everlasting  snows,  a  perpetual  feast 
of  refreshment  to  tropic  eyes,  standing  as  serenely 
proud  and  pure  as  when,  in  the  centuries  past,  filed 
between  them  the  war-worn  band  of  Cortes,  and 


ORIZABA  TO   THE   CITY  OF    MEXICO.  43 

later,  passed  beneath  them  the  invincible  army  of 
Scott,  and  the  veteran  troops  of  Maximilian — ma- 
jestic peaks  indeed,  which  the  reverent  eye  can 
never,  and  would  never  lose  while  in  this  fair  and 
fertile  valley  of  the  Aztecs ! 

Between  them  and  ourselves,  as  we  approached,  lay 
the  quiet  waters  of  Tezcuco,  set  in  the  peaceful  plain, 
and  recalling  so  much  of  thrilling  interest  in  the 
romantic  annals  of  Anahuac. 

The  city  itself  came  upon  us  almost  suddenly, 
protected  as  it  is  by  nearer  hills,  and  shaded  by  a 
rich  and  grateful  foliage  in  parks,  paseos,  and  suburbs. 

It  was  already  the  dusk  of  evening,  and  in  a  gentle 
"  April  shower,"  that  we  alighted  from  our  railway 
carriages  to  seek  hospitality  and  rest  in  this  once 
imperial  city  of  an  ever  mysterious  race,  a  city  and 
a  race  vested  with  the  glamor  of  a  history  stranger 
than  the  strangest  romance. 

"  Thou  art  beautiful, 
Queen  of  the  Valley  !  thou  art  beautiful ! 
Thy  walls,  like  silver,  sparkle  to  the  sun  ; 
Melodious  wave  thy  groves  ;  thy  garden  sweets 
Enrich  the  pleasant  air  ;  upon  the  lake 
Lie  the  long  shadows  of  thy  towers." 

Southey's  Madoc. 


v. 

THE  CITY   OF    MEXICO. 


VIEW   IN  THE  SQUARE  IN  THE  CITY   OF   MEXICO. 

THE  first  impression  of   the  City  of  Mexico  is 
somewhat  disappointing  to  the  mind  fresh  from 
the   romantic  pages  of  Prescott,  but  a  more  deli- 


THE    CITY    OF    MEXICO.  45 

berate  observation  will  appreciate  its  unsurpassed 
picturesqueness  and  advantages  of  site,  and  confirm 
the  general  verdic^tjhat  it  is  the  best-built  "Spanish* 
city  on  the  American  continent. 

There  are  people,  indeed,  who  are  always  disap- 
pointed; who  visit  Venice,  Rome  and  Naples,  and 
grumble  over  continual  disenchantment.  Their  ideas 
of  history  seem  mostly  a  compound  of  popular  novels, 
flavored  with  "the  Arabian  Nights,"  and  who, 
therefore,  feel  quite  lost  in  the  present  sombre  silence 
of  the  Grand  Canal,  in  the  dilapidations  of  the 
Seven-hilled  City,  and  in  the  ineffaceable  odors  of 
what  was  so  recently  the  Bomba  Bourbon  capital. 

And  thus  with  Mexico — the  city  of  Montezuma  and 
of  Cortes,  and  gilded  forever  by  the  genius  of  one  of 
America's  greatest  historians.  It  is,  perhaps,  a  dis- 
appointment to  find  so  few  vestiges  of  an  empire, 
which  appears  to  have  vied  in  luxuty  and  pomp,  in 
all  the  appliances  and  arts  of  living,  with  any  con- 
temporaneous nation  of  the  older  world. 

The  selfish,  ruthless  greed  of  the  conquerors  seems 
to  have  swept  almost  everything  away.  The  very 
worst  thing  that  can  be  said  against  the  Aztecs — to 


46  MEXICO  AS  IT  IS. 

.  wit,  their  human  sacrifices — pales  beside  the  subse- 
1  quent  atrocities,  both  of  Church  and  State,  committed 
I  against  these  heathen  Indians  under  the  name  of 
\  Christianity ! 

We  say,  therefore,  that,  considering  the  generally 
unprincipled  and  reckless  character  of  these  Spanish 
adventurers,  the  intelligent  traveller  must  be  agree- 
ably surprised  to  see  what  a  city  they  founded,  and 
how  wisely  in  rebuilding  they  followed  some  of  the 
best  ideas  of  their  victim  converts. 

The  new  city  was  built  upon  the  lines  of  the  old, 
destroyed  in  the  last  furious  battles  of  the  almost 
exterminating  war.  The  streets  are  laid  out  with 
remarkable  width  and  regularity,  but  they  do 
not  extend  to  the  dimensions  of  the  Aztec  capital. 
Prosperous  as  is  the  present  city,  it  is  smaller  than 
the  old  by  very  many  thousands  of  population,*  and 
long  ancient  ave*nues  are  seen  stretching  away  from 
it  in  every  direction,  which  formerly  were  teeming 
with  life  and  industry. 

Undoubtedly  the  great  charm  of  the  city  has  been 

< 

*  The  present  population  is  about  200,000,  we  believe. 


THE  CITY   OF  MEXICO.  47 

lost  in  the  subsidence  of  the  lake,  which  once 
extended  into  the  street- canals,  and  formed  the 
gorgeous  floating  gardens  of  Aztec  wealth  and  ro- 
mance. At  present  the  lake  is  a  league  distant  from 
the  capital,  and,  unruffled  by  any  commerce,  must 
present  a  depressing  contrast  with  the  day  when  it 
was  alive  with  Indian  crafts  of  every  kind  and  pur- 
pose. 

The  centre  of  all  interest  in  the  capital  is,  of 
course,  its  great  square,  a  large  part  of  which  is  laid  * 
out  as  a  beautiful  park.  On  one  side  stands  the 
cathedral,  one  of  the  largest,  if  not  the  largest  place 
of  worship  on  this  continent,  and  occupying  the  site 
of  the  great  Teocalii  of  the  Aztecs.  With  regard 
to  this  Teocalii  or  temple,  we  are  told  "  that  within 
its  enclosure  were  five  hundred  dwellings.  That  its 
hall  was  built  of  stone  and  lime,  and  ornamented  with 
stone  serpents.  We  hear  of  its  four  great  gates, 
fronting  the  four  cardinal  points ;  of  its  stone-paved 
court;  great  stone  stairs,  and  sanctuaries  dedicated 
to  the  gods  of  war ;  of  the  square  destined  for  reli- 
gious dances,  and  the  colleges  for  the  priests,  and 
seminaries  for  the  priestesses ;  of  the  horrible  temple, 


48  MEXICO    AS   IT  IS. 

whose  door  was  an  enormous  serpent's  mouth  ;  of 
the   temple   of  mirrors   and   that  of  shells ;    of  the 
house  set  apart  for  the  emperor's  prayers ;    of  the 
consecrated  fountains,  the  birds  kept  for  sacrifice,  the 
gardens  for  the  holy  flowers,  and  of  the  terrible  tow- 
ers  composed  of  the  skulls  of  the  victims — strange 
mixture  of  the  beautiful  and  the  horrible  !     We  are" 
told  that  five  thousand  priests  chanted  night  and  day 
in  the  Great  Temple,  to  the  honor  and  in  the  service 
of  the  monstrous  idols,  who  were  anointed  thrice  a 
day  with  the  most  precious  perfumes  ;  and  that  of 
these  priests  the  most  austere  were  clothed  in  black, 
their  long  hair  dyed  with  ink,  and  their  bodies  anoint- 
ed with  the  ashes  of  burnt  scorpions  and  spiders ; 
their  chiefs  were  the  sons  of  kings." 

The  present  cathedral  is  an  exceedingly  impres- 
sive building,  and  fixed  upon  one  side  is  the  huge, 
mysterious  "calendar  stone,"  weighing  many  tons, 
and  transported  from  its  distant  quarry  by  appliances 
which  have  equally  baffled  the  best  antiquarian  schol- 
ars of  our  day. 

The  interior  presents  nothing  very  remarkable 
beyond  its  immensity.  The  choir  stands  singularly 


THE  CITY   OF   MEXICO.  49 

near  the  opposite  end  from  the  high  altar  and  apse, 
and  is  connected  with  the  former  by  a  railed  pas- 
sage-way, which  rails  were  once,  as  we  are  told, 
of  solid  silver  —  long  since,  however,  devoted  to 
political  necessities !  There  is  some  fine  woodwork 
in  the  choir,  and  there  are  a  few  tolerable  paintings. 
The  sacristy  is  a  noble  room,  and  the  marble  ar- 
rangements for  priestly  ablution  are  remarkably 
handsome  and  complete.  In  one  of  the  several  visits 
we  paid  to  this  cathedral,  upon  a  Lenten  Sunday, 
we  found  a  large  and  devout  congregation. 

Another  side  of  the  square  is  taken  up  with  the 
palace,  now  occupied  by  the  President  with  as  much 
enjoyment,  doubtless,  as  by  any  of  his  Imperial  pre- 
decessors. It  is  a  long,  low,  white  building,  plain  even 
to  shabbiness,  but  good  enough,  we  suppose,  for  a 
bachelor  chief!*  The  hall  of  ambassadors,  or  of  State 
receptions,  is  interesting  from  its  life-size  portraits  of 
Mexican  rulers,  from  the  Independence.  A  remarka- 
ble fact  of  these  men  is  that  several  were  priests,  and 
nearly  all  educated  under  Jesuit  influence.  Undoubt- 

*  Lerdo  was  still  President  at  the  time  of  our  visit. 

4 


50  MEXICO   AS  IT  IS. 

edly  the  most  of  them  were  men  of  lofty  patriotism. 
Hidalgo,  one  of  the  first  fo  lead  the  revolted  Mexi- 
cans, was  a  village  curate,  whose  soul  was  fired  by 
the  injustice  and  oppression  of  Spain.  Juarez,  one 
of  the  noblest  of  them  all,  was  a  pure-blooded 
Indian,  who,  with  all  his  "  opportunities,"  died  a 
poor  man  —  one  good  lesson  of  little,  despised 
Mexico  to  her  great,  Pharisaic  ^sistei;  in  the  North ! 
Lerdo,  the  present  ruler,  is  an  educated,  shrewd, 
and  somewhat  unscrupulous  man,  resorting,  perhaps 
from  political  necessity,  to  some  means  of  govern- 
ment, which  make  the  name  of  republic  a  farce. 
During  our  stay  in  the  capital,  he  recruited  his  army 
by  sending  a  column  of  troops  to  sweep  through 
the  streets,  impressing  the  poor  and  respecting  the 
rich.  The  present  revolution  is  partly  due,  we 
fear,  to  this  arbitrariness,  though  we  must  recognize 
that  the  embers  of  such  disorder  seem  ever  smoul- 
dering in  this  unhappy  land,  and  can  only  be 
extinguishedi  by  the  consistency  of  a  purer  faith  and 
a  wider,  truer  education,  j 

To  return  again  to  the  palace.     It  was  sadly  sig- 
nificant to   observe  upon    many  magnificent  vases 


THE  CITY   OF   MEXICO.  51 

and  other  ornaments  the  cipher  of  Maximilian, 
which  the  republican  succession  could  not  remove 
without  damage,  and  which  therefore  has  been  very 
sensibly  allowed  to  remain.  In  the  armory  of  the 
palace  we  were  shocked  to  see  the  stand  of  arms 
with  which  the  poor,  well-meaning,  but  misguided 
monarch  was  shot ;  and  our  feelings  were  not 
much  relieved  by  observing  in  the  same  hall  a 
number  of  tattered  American  flags,  captured  in  the 
Mexican  war.  _/ 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  square  from  the 
palace  stands  one  of  the  most  interesting  buildings 
remaining  of  the  older  city.  It  is  the  palace  built 
and  occupied  for  a  time  by  Cortes.  It  is  a  plain, 
substantial  edifice,  built,  as  customary,  about  a 
large  court,  and  now  used  as  the  government 
"  Monte  Pio "  or  pawn-broking  establishment. 
Here,  if  your  eyes  are  open  and  your  pocket  able, 
you  can  often  pick  up  objects  of  interest  and  value, 
bric-a-brac,  in  short,  "for  a  song."  There  is  every- 
thing, indeed,  from  a  coach  to  a  ring,  displayed  in 
the  spacious  halls  and  rooms,  and  so  with  little  effort 
or  expense,  you  may  succeed  some  day  in  purchas- 


52  MEXICO  AS  IT  IS. 

ing  a  bauble  of  the  conquerors.  In  fact  the  whole 
country  is  a  mine  of  interest  for  the  antiquary  and 
the  scholar,  for  collectors  of  all  kinds  and  travellers 
of  all  aims. 

The  interest  of  sight-seeing  is  enhanced  by  the 
fact  that  you  must  be  your  own  "  Murray "  and 
"Baedeker."  No  slavish  absorption  in  a  printed 
page — so  often  at  the  expense  of  the  object  itself;  no 
servile  following  in  the  footsteps  of  an  illiterate  valet 
de  place.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  guide- 
book known  in  the  whole  free  land  of  Mexico ! 
By  dint  of  much  search  and  persuasion  we  suc- 
ceeded in  securing  the  services  of  an  elderly  colored 
man,  who  had  gone  to  Mexico  as  a  body-servant  to 
one  of  Scott's  officers,  and  who,  through  much  tribu- 
lation, had  been  able  to  settle  there.  He  gave  us 
cheerfully  the  benefit  of  his  linguistic  and  other  ad- 
vantages, but  I  verily  believe  we  taught  him  much 
more  than  he  had  ever  begun  to  suspect  about  the 
city  and  environs,  before  we  were  through  with  him. 
And  thus  we  found  out  that  there  was  a  picture 
gallery,  with  some  very  poor  pictures  in  it  The 
finest  paintings  we  saw  in  the  country  were  two  little 


THE    CITY  OF  MEXICO.  53 

gems  of  Murillo,  in  the  private  chamber  of  a  resident 
gentleman,  whose  princely  hospitality  added  one  of 
the  greatest  charms  to  our  visit.  We  unearthed  also 
a  museum  of  Aztec  antiquities — pitched  and  piled 
helter-skelter  in  two  or  three  mean  rooms,  with  a 
carelessness  reflecting  great  discredit  upon  the  Mex- 
ican Government  Here  is  the  miraculous  banner 
once  borne  before  the  victorious  Cortes;  and  few 
sweeter  faces  have  I  seen  than  the  pictured  Virgin 
upon  it  Here  also  is  the  feather  shield  of  the  great 
Montezuma,  and  near  them  all  sorts  of  curious  old 
Aztec  and  Spanish  weapons,  any  number  of  hideous 
Indianjdols,  quaint  jars  and  vases,  primitive  musical 
instruments,  etc.,  etc.  One  of  the  strangest  relics  of 
all  was  a  sacrificial  yoke  of  stone,  which  gives  a 
very  striking  idea  of  what  Aztec  heathenism  was — an 
impression  intensified  to  the  last  degree  when  one 
has  seen  in  the  court  below  the  immense  sacri- 
ficial stone,  round,  weirdly  sculptured  and  channelled 
for  the  victim's  blood — when,  with  knives  of  flint,  the 
heart  was  dug  from  the  still  living  body,  and  cast  at 
the  idol's  feet ! 

It  were   much   to   be   desired    that    the     Mexi- 


54  MEXICO  AS    IT  IS. 

can  people  should  devote  a  little  of  that  super- 
fluous energy,  which  they  are  ever  expending  in 
revolutions,  and  with  which  they  sent  such  a  re- 
spectable display  to  "the  Centennial,"  toward  the 
collection  and  formation  of  a  worthy  museum  of 
antiquities. 

There  are  few  other  public  buildings  of  particular 
interest  in  the  city.  The  college  is  a  noble,  spacious, 
substantial  edifice,  and  apparently  well-appointed. 
The  collections  of  natural  history  are  remarkably 
creditable  to  the  country.  There  are  also  some  good 
hospitals,  of  old  foundation,  one  of  them — that  of 
"  Jesus  " — containing  a  veritable  portrait  of  Cortes, 
and  once  having  held  his  ashes.  The  place  of 
their  final  deposit  is  not  known. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  and  attractive  resorts 
in  the  capital  is  the  old  market-place,  where  you  may 
see  to-day  the  very  people,  costumes,  habits  and 
food,  which  the  Conquistador es  found  and  marvelled 

at  more  than  three  centuries  ago — a  chattering,  chaf- 

> 
fering,    half-clad   crowd    of  Indians,    under   booths, 

and  with  a  variety  of  tropical  vegetables  and  fruits, 
from  which  you  obtain  a  good  idea  of  the  marvellous 


THE  CITY  OF   MEXICO.  55 

capabilities  and  advantages  of  the  Mexican  soil  and 
climate.  But  as  regards  these  fruits,  we  cannot  but 
express  our  preference  for  a  good  peach  .or  apple  to 
all  their  luxuriant  insipidity.  And  so  it  is  with 
almost  all  tilings  tropical ;  for  character  and  strength 
you  must  go  to  the  sterner,  severer  North — and  thus 
we  have  much  of  the  moral  of  history  ! 

A  word  about  the  private  residences  in  the  city  of 
Mexico.  Many  of  them  are  of  palatial  proportions, 
and  most  inviting  to  the  passer-by,  with  their  court- 
yards and  galleries  and  flowers.  One  of  them,  near 
our  hotel,  is  most  gorgeously  tiled  over  its  whole  ex- 
terior, and  several,  indeed,  would  vie  with  any 
palaces  in  Europe.  The  Iturbide  Hotel  was  the 
palace  of  that  rash  and  unfortunate  monarch,  and  is 
strikingly  grand.  The  accommodations  there,  as 
elsewhere,  are  excellent,  the  restaurant  separate  from 
the  lodging ;  and  one  can  live  in  the  best  travelling 
style  and  comfort  for  two  or  three  dollars  a  day  in 
gold.  With  every  convenience  of  living,  and  every 
fascination  of  interest,  what  can  the  tourist  ask  more 
or  better  than  a  visit  to  the  city  of  Mexico  ? 


VI. 


THE  ENVIRONS   OF  THE   CITY  OF   MEXICO. 


BUILDINGS  NEAR  THE  SQUARE  OF  THE  CATHEDRAL. 

r  I  ^HE  environs  of  the  city  of  Mexico  maybe  said  to 
-•-  equal,  if  not  to  exceed  in  interest,  the  city  itself. 
There  is  an  almost  monotonous  regularity  about  the 
latter,  much  relieved,  however,  by  the  beautiful  parks, 
the  markets,  and  such  delightful  old  squares  as,  e.  g., 
that  of  the  Inquisition,  where  the  flavor  of  the  cruel 
yet  creamy  past  becomes  absolutely  intense ;  where 


THE  ENVIRONS  OF  THE   CITY  OF  MEXICO.      57 

one  finds  all  sorts  of  antique  odds  and  ends  ex- 
posed for  sale  under  the  arcades,  and  you  enter 
the  picturesque  church  and  find  idolatry  to  your 
heart's  content,  (we  speak  to  those  zealous  souls  who 
are  so  easily  made  happy  by  the  detection  of  undue- 
ness  in  their  neighbor's  worship !).  We  must  with 
sadness  admit  that  what  we  witnessed  in  the  dim  old 
church  of  the  Inquisition  was  very  gross — grosser 
than  anything  we  remember  to  have  seen  in  the 
older  world. 

Life-size  representations  of  the  Saviour,  seated,  and 
revoltingly  wounded,  and  also  as  dead  from  the  Cross, 
met  one  in  the  nave ;  and  all  about  the  walls  there 
was  a  profusion  of  the  tawdriest  decoration. 

But  enough  of  this,  in  all  pity !  Let  us  start  out 
on  this  lovely  Spring  afternoon,  (in  February !)  for 
a  drive  to  Chapultepec,  and  pray  do  not  be  so  in- 
tensely patriotic  as  to  think  at  once  of  Gen.  Scott 
and  his  yesterday  victories  over  a  half-caste  and  de- 
generate people ;  but  lift  your  soul  to  the  romantic 
^  level  of  Montezuma  and  his  barbaric  glory^ 

It  is  not  a  long  drive — some  four  or  five  miles — 
but  far  enough  to  make  it  very  unsafe  at  certain 


58  MEXICO  AS  IT  IS. 

times.  The  avenues  are  very  fine  in  every  direction 
from  the  city,  well-paved,  and  planted  with  trees,  the 
newest  and  handsomest  towards  Chapultepec  being 
called  after  the  unhappy  Empress  Carlotta,  to  whom, 
as  to  her  imperial  husband,  so  many  of  the  improve- 
ments in  and  about  the  city  are  due.  But,  we  repeat, 
upon  no  one  of  them  is  it  considered  safe  to  drive 
after  dark.  The  very  boulevard  which  on  Mardigras 
afternoon  was  thronged  with  vehicles,  cavaliers,  and 

•  populace,  in  the  gayest  and  most  festive  appearance, 
(such  a  scene  of  costumes  and  characteristics  as  you 
must  now  go  to  Mexico  to  behold)  at  dusk  becomes 
absolutely  deserted  —  and  woe  to  the  unlucky  and 
belated  one ! 

t  Not  long  before  our  visit  to  the  city,  a  wealthy 
proprietor  was  caught  and  carried  off,  and  after  a 
persistent  search,  his  friends  found  him  in  a  secluded 
hovel,  buried  up  to  his  neck  and  gagged,  while  his 
inhuman  captors  were  awaiting  the  exorbitant  ransom. 
Another  instance :  we  were  so  fortunate  as  to 
breakfast  at  the  princely  villa  in  the  pretty  village  of 
Tacubaya,  near  Chapultepec,  of  one  of  Mexico's  most 
distinguished  millionaires.  The  plate  upon  the  hos- 


THE  ENVIRONS   OF  THE  CITY  OF   MEXICO.      59 

pitable  board  was  worth  a  fortune ;  but  when  a  little 
later  we  were  looking  into  the  dining-room,  the 
domestics  were  hastily  packing  it  up  to  be  taken 
back  to  the  city  before  night 

And  this  genial  gentleman  himself  would  scarcely 
dare  to  pass  a  night  in  his  own  elegant  retreat  —  O, 
the  Sister  Republic  ! 

Near  the  foot  of  the  hill  of  Chapultepec  stands  an 
interesting  relic  of  Montezuma's  glory,  in  the  shape 
of  what  is  called  his  "  swimming  baths,"  in  a  most 
inviting  spot,  with  large  and  deep  tanks  of  cool,  clear 
water,  and  with  a  surrounding  structure  recently 
decorated  in  Pompeian  style.  It  is  a  favorite  resort  for 
the  city  people.  A  swarthy  son  of  the  Aztecs  was 
induced,  for  a  consideration,  to  disport  himself  in  the 
pellucid  depths  for  our  amusement. 

But  the  crowning  glory  of  Chapultepec  is  found 
in  its  venerable  and  majestic  trees,  which  are  worthy 
to  stand  beside  the  cedars  of  Lebanon  and  the 
pines  of  Mariposa.  They  are  of  the  cypress  fam- 
ily, and  many  in  number.  It  would  be  safe  to 
say  that  some  of  them  are  forty  or  fifty  feet  in 
diameter.  Their  umbrageous  summits  tower  into 


60  MEXICO    AS   IT   IS. 

the  blue  summer  sky,  and  it  is  easy 'to  understand 
how  Montezuma  was  accustomed  to  seek  their  rest- 
ful shelter.  The  grounds  wherein  they  stand  sur- 
round extensively  the  castled  hill,  and  even  in  their 
comparative  neglect  are  most  delightsome. 

The  palace  of  Chapultepec  is  now  undergoing  ex- 
tensive repairs,  and  but  little  remains  of  its  earlier 
character.  Yet  it  is  not  without  a  thrill  that  one 
stands  on  foundations  reared  by  a  Montezuma,  and 
gazes  on  a  prospect  that  must  often  have  rejoiced  his 
eyes,  as  well  as  those  of  his  conqueror  Cortes,  and 
of  their  strange  successors,  Maximilian  and  Juarez. 

The  view  from  the  tower  is  unsurpassed — fair  as 
the  Vgj&Graaada.,  and  in  the  season  of  moisture, 


M 

t    doubtless  as  fascinating  as  the  plain   of  Damascus. 
jf    Almost  at  our   feet   lies   the  great   city,  beautifully 
«      embowered  in  its   perennial  green,  and  surrounded 
•V       with  its  imperial  avenues,  its  charming  villages,  and 
gleaming  lakes,  and  towering  above  all  in  the  glitter- 
ing distance,   the  twin  snow-crowned  guardians  of 
the  majestic  valley. 

Another  delightful  excursion  from  the  city  is  to 
"the  floating  gardens."     We  started  early,  to  avoid 


THE     ENVIRONS   OF   THE   CITY   OF   MEXICO.      6 1 

the  heat  of  the' day,  and  took  a  covered  boat  in  the 
canal,  which  leads   to   Lake  Chalco.     Near  to  our 
point  of  departure  stands  the  striking  monument  to 
the  last  and  one  of  the  worthiest  of  the  Aztec  Em- 
perors—Gautemozin— who  did  all  that  patriotism  and 
valor  could  to  save  his  already  doomed  and  divided 
country.     The  canal  is  only  about  twenty-five  feet 
wide,  and  very  shallow,   but   is   a   thoroughfare  for 
country   produce.      It   was   an    animated   and   pic- 
turesque   scene,  as   we  were    "  poled  "    along,  often 
through  crowds  of  scows  and  canoes,  laden  to  the 
water's  edge  with  vegetables,  firewood,  grain,  bags 
of  sugar,  etc.,  etc.,  and  skilfully  propelled  by  dusky 
Indians,  very   scantily  clad,  but  cheerful    and  con- 
tented-looking—as  who     could   fail   to   be  beneath 
such  a  genial  sun  ? 

Soon  we  were  gliding  between  low,  verdant 
banks,  bordered  principally  with  willows,  and  at  in- 
tervals passing  little  Indian  villages  of  wigwams, 
surrounded  with  pleasant  gardens  and  refreshing 

shade.  * 

You  turn  from  the  main  canal  into  smaller  cut- 
tings, just  wide  enough  for  your  boat,  and  intersecting 


62  MEXICO  AS  IT  IS. 

in  every  direction,  and  find  yourself  among  the  so- 
called  "floating  gardens."  Formerly,  as  we  read, 
a  great  deal  of  the  watery  environs  of  the  city  were 
thus  occupied,  and  magical  must  have  been  the 
effect  of  these  rich  and  variegated  patches  of  terra 
firma,  being  moved  from  place  to  place,  or  anchored, 
and  swaying  gently  to  the  ripples  and  the  breeze. 
First  formed  by  vegetable  accumulations,  and  added 
to  by  careful  art,  they  soon  became,  under  the 
Aztecs,  a  leading  means  sof  industry  and  wealth. 
What  remains  of  them  to-day  is  mostly  stationary, 
and  irrigated  by  a  sort  of  deep  shovel,  reminding 
one  of  the  primitive  Nile  methods.  These  gardens 
are  very  brilliant  and  beautiful,  rejoicing  this  day  of 
early  March  in  a  profusion  of  vegetables,  fruit  and 
flowers. 

About  three  miles  from  the  capital  we  came  to 
the  old  village  of  Sta.  Anita,  as  primitive  looking  and 
picturesque  a  place  as  one  could  desire  to  visit. 
The  Indian  huts  take  you  back  to  the  fellaheen 
hovels  of  Egypt,  though,  we  are  glad  to  add,  not  as 
squalidly  wretched.  The  more  pretentious  buildings 
have  the  same  Spanish  character  as  elsewhere. 


THE   ENVIRONS   OF   THE   CITY   OF    MEXICO.      63 

There  is  the  same  old  Fonda,  and  the  same  sleepy, 
dilapidated  public  square — suggestive  of  everything 
but  progress,  and  hence  so  refreshing  to  eyes  fresh 
from  "the  States." 

Hearing  a  loud,  confused  hum  of  voices,  we  en- 
tered a  building  on  the  square,  and  found  a  public 
school,  though  how  they  could  learn  anything  under 
such  Babel-like  circumstances  it  was  difficult  to 
imagine.  It  sounded  as  if  every  one  were  reciting 
something  different  at  once ! 

Just  beyond  was  the  village  church,  arid  entirely 
characteristic — an  old,  rude  structure,  with  tawdry 
interior,  and  an  odd-looking  wooden  representation 
of  Cortes  on  horseback.  In  the  yard  we  observed 
the  singular  custom  of  skulls  and  bones  placed  and 
piled  above  the  graves  or  on  the  stones — a  revolting 
sight,  certainly  indicating  a  low  state  of  civilization 
and  religion.  The  considerable  number  of  disused 
and  decaying  chapels  in  the  neighborhood  was  like- 
wise a  sad  evidence  of  the  latter :  but  what  else  can 
we  expect  from  a  country  where  the  worst  elements 
of  Spanish  ignorance,  bigotry,  and  intolerance  have 
taken  root  and  thriven  ? 


64  MEXICO  AS   IT  IS, 

Surely  with  all  our  missions  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth,  we  might  find  means  and  energies  for  convey- 
ing to  this  fair  and  favoring  land  some  portion  of 
those  spiritual  benefits  and  advantages,  for  which  we 
have  just  been  thanking  our  fathers'  God  in  the  hun- 
dredth year  of  our  national  existence. 


VII. 

THE  ENVIRONS   OF  THE  CITY   OF  MEXICO. 
(Continued.) 

"OUR    LADY    OP    GUADALtJPE." 

WHAT  Loretto  is  to  Italy,  Einsideln  to  Swit- 
zerland, the  Atocha  to  Spain,  and  Lourdes 
just  now  to  France,  is  Guadalupe  to  Mexico — the 
holy  city  of  patriotic  pilgrimage  !  Human  nature 
demands  such  things,  and  will  have  them  in  some 
shape  or  other.  Nations,  like  individuals,  in  times 
of  need  ask  a  sign  from  Heaven,  and  apotheosize 
their  own  interpretation.  Only  woe  to  the  nation 
and  woe  to  the  Church,  when  the  former,  asking 
bread,  receives  from  the  latter  a  stone  ! 

The    Spanish     conquerors    of    Mexico    were   not 

troubled   with   scruples.      The   conscience   of  their 

Church  was  as  elastic  then  as  it  is  to-day.     Let  me 

tell  you  the  story  of  Guadalupe,  premising  that  it  is 

5 


66  MEXICO  AS  IT  IS. 

but  a  change  of  scene;  the  main  elements  have 
been  the  same  in  every  age  since  Hilde- 
brand. 

The  facts  are  taken  from  a  sermon  of  a  Cardinal 
of  "  the  Holy  Roman  Church."  The  hero  this  time 
is — as  might  be  expected — a  converted  Indian,  who 
"  on  his  way  to  study  the  Christian  doctrine,"  passed 
by  a  mountain  near  to  the  city  of  Mexico.  To  him 
appeared  the  Blessed  Virgin,  and  told  him  to  seek 
the  then  Bishop,  and  to  say  to  him  in  her  name  that 
she  desired  him  to  come  and  worship  her  on  that 
very  spot  On  his  return  to  the  mountain  the  Vir- 
gin reappeared  to  receive  his  report  Our  friend 
replied  that  he  had  not  succeeded  in  obtaining  an 
interview  with  the  Bishop.  "  Return,  and  tell  him 
that  I,  Mary,  the  mother  of  God,  have  sent  you," 
was  her  answer. 

The  second  time  the  Indian  was  admitted  to  the 
Episcopal  presence,  but  his  Right  Reverence  very 
naturally  declined  belief  until  he  received  some  sat- 
isfactory evidence  of  the  apparition.  The  patient 
Aztec  returns  to  the  holy  spot  with  the  message  for 
"  our  Lady,"  who  appears  to  him  the  third  time. 


THE  ENVIRONS   OF  THE  CITY   OF  MEXICO.      67 

She  simply  commands  him  to  ascend  the  mountain, 
and  to  "  cut  roses  "  for  her. 

Now  Juan  Diego  knew  perfectly  well  the  moun- 
tain was  entirely  destitute  of  vegetation ;  but  with 
exemplary  faith  he  makes  the  attempt,  finds  the 
floivers,  and  brings  them  happily  to  the  Virgin.  She 
throws  them  in  his  tilma,  (a  part  of  his  loose  Indian 
dress,)  and  says,  "  Return  once  more  to  the  Bishop, 
and  tell  him  that  these  flowers  are  the  credentials  of 
your  mission."  The  honored  native  departs,  and 
admitted  to  the  Bishop's  presence,  unfolds  his  robe 
to  present  the  roses,  "  when  lo !  there  appeared  on 
the  rude  garment  that  blessed  picture  of  the  Virgin, 
which  now,  after  three  centuries,  still  exists,  without 
having  suffered  the  slightest  injury !"  The  Virgin 
once  more  appears  to  our  favored  friend,  the  Indian, 
restores  his  uncle  to  health,  and  tells  him  "the 
image  on  thy  tilma  I  wish  called  the  Virgin  of 
Guadalupe !" 

The  image  itself  passed  from  the  oratory  of  the 
Bishop  to  the  shrine  of  the  great  collegiate  Church — 
one  of  the  wealthiest  in  the  world.  You  will  find  a 
copy  of  the  picture,  as  a  household  god,  literally 


68  MEXICO   AS    IT  IS. 

speaking,  in  every  orthodox  Mexican  home.  The 
name  of  "  Maria  de  Guadalupe  "  designates  a  large 
proportion  of  Mexico's  fair  daughters.  She  is,  in- 
deed, the  Patron  Saint  of  Mexico,  in  accordance 
with  the  proud  motto  beneath,  "Non  fecit  taliter 
omni  nationi !" 

So  much  for  the  fanciful  legend,  and  now  for  an 
excursion  to  the  shrine  itself.  It  is  only  two  or  three 
miles  from  the  capital,  and  is  reached  by  frequent 
and  rapid  horse  cars.  And  what  is  better,  you  may, 
by  paying  a  little  more,  travel  in  first-class  and  very 
neat  carriages,  with  plenty  of  room — a  refinement  of 
civilization  which  we  unprejudiced  Americans  have 
not  yet  reached. 

It  is  a  very  pleasant  road,  one  of  the  old  Aztec 
avenues,  refreshingly  bordered  with  tropical  green ; 
but  the  village  of  Guadalupe,  which  is  the  terminus, 
is  decidedly  unprepossessing — very  religiously  mean 
and  dirty  !  The  church  itself  is  not  large,  but  bar- 
barously rich  within.  There  is  the  same  peculiar 
arrangement  of  choir  and  altar  as  in  the  Cathedral 
of  Mexico.  Above  the  altar,  gorgeously  encased  in 
precious  metals  and  gems,  is  the  poor  Indian's  pictured 


THE   ENVIRONS  OF   THE    CITY  OF  MEXICO.       69 

tilma — the  wonder-working  Madonna  of  Guadalupe. 
The  long,  large  rail- work  of  choir,  altar,  aisle,  etc.,  is 
all  of  silver,  as  are  also  candelabra,  lecterns,  etc.,  etc. — 
such  an  overwhelming  effect  of  wealth  as  we  believe 
to  be  unique. 

There  is  nothing  in  Europe  more  exquisite  than 
the  choir  wood-carvings.  They  are  in  high  relief,  of 
scenes  from  the  life  of  our  Lord — every  one  a  study 
of  delight  There  are,  of  course,  a  number  of  pic- 
tures, but  few  of  much  merit.  Among  the  worst  are 
the^native  attempts  tof  represent  the  miraculous  sto- 
ry ;  and,  as  is  universally  the  case,  the  most  unfortu- 
nate are  the  ex  voto  offerings  and  efforts  of  art,  and 
yet  each  one  of  them,  as  we  must  reverently  remem- 
ber, representing  a  world  of  tragic  reality  and  faith 
ful  sentiment. 

Everywhere,  indeed,  within  the  consecrated  inte- 
rior, is  a  blaze  of  gold  and  silver,  rich  gems  and  mar- 
bles, while  just  without,  at  the  very  door,  lies  the 
usual  assortment  of  crouching,  crippled  beggary  ;  and 
to  crown  the  whole,  in  the  porch  of  this  most  sacred 
and  suggestive  shrine,  you  are  invited  to  purchase^ 
lottery  ticket ! 


7°  MEXICO   AS   IT   IS. 

Passing  from  the  church  up  a  winding  street,  you 
come  shortly  to  the  miraculous  well,  its  waters  havr 
ing  been  blessed  by  the  Virgin  to  the  cure  of  all 
manner  of  fleshly  ills.  It  is  protected  by  a  small 
chapel,  which  is  constantly  thronged  with  the  faithful. 
We  found  the  water  disagreeable  to  the  taste,  which 
however  may  indicate  the  presence  of  some  effective 
mineral  agent. 

From  this  chapel  a  steep,  stone  stairway  ascends  to 
the  summit  of  the  hill,  where  stands  another  and 
smaller  church,  marking  the  actual  site  of  the  miracu- 
lous gift  This  temple  is  devoid  of  any  aesthetic  in- 
terest ;  but  from  the  pavement  in  front  is  a  charming 
view  of  plain  and  mountain,  lake  and  city,  cer- 
tainly none  the  less  refreshing  as  you  turn  from  the 
sad  desecration  of  faith  around  you. 

And  as  we  rode  "homeward,  in  the  cool,  quiet  even- 
tide, we  could  not  but  reflect  again  upon  the  unchang- 
ing and  unchangeable  aspects  of  human  nature,  which 
enwrap  the  fabled  mount  of  Guadalupe  with  the  same 
fatal  gloom  overshadowing  the  seven  hills  of  fallen 
Rome! 


VIII. 

THE  ENVIRONS  OF  THE  CITY   OF  MEXICO. 
(Continued.) 

THE  PYRAMIDS  OF  SAN  JUAN  TEOTIHUACAN. 
"The  City  of  the  gods." 

OF  all  the  excursions  in  the  Mexican  valley,  that 
to  the  pyramids  of  San  Juan  Teotihuacan  is  by 
far  the  most  interesting  to  the  student  of  the  past. 
There  hangs  about  them  a  mystery  not  even  pos- 
sessed by  the  much  greater  antiquity  of  the  Egyptian 
monuments.  Scholars  have  examined,  excavated, 
studied  and  searched,  but  cannot  well  decide  as  to 
which  of  those  great  tribes  and  nations,  that  swept 
down  successively  from  the  sterner  North  to  occupy 
these  rich  table-lands,  the  origin  of  these  pyramids 
is  due ;  and  yet,  if  we  assign  them,  as  is  common,  to 
the  Toltec  race,  we  cannot  go  further  back  than  the 
sixth  century  of  our  era.  It  is  a  mystery  almost 


72  MEXICO  AS  IT  IS. 

unparalleled  in  the  annals  of  history.  There  they 
stand,  and  not  alone,  for  similar  erections  are  found 
at  Cholula  and  elsewhere,  pyramids  reaching  even  to 
the  grandeur  of  Egypt's,  of  which  we  now  have  en- 
tirely satisfactory  explanations  —  monuments  of  a 
regal  past,  which  has  churlishly  left  us  no  sign  nor 
story — a  mystery  like  that  of  the  vast  mounds  and 
massive  ruins  found  in  our  own  far  West,  which  we 
believe  the  best  studies  would  assign,  as  a  prior 
construction,  to  the  same  lost  and  buried  people. 

It  is  more  than  idle  to  doubt  their  artificial  cha- 
racter. They  bear  every  evidence  of  careful  labor 
in  form,  material,  color,  arrangement,  relics,  etc.,  as 
we  shall  proceed  to  show.  Indeed  we  may  now  say 
that  our  own  unprejudiced  examination  convinced 
us  of  the  probable  truth  of  the  generally  received 
theory  on  the  subject,  that  these  pyramids  of  San 
Juan  Teotihuacan,  with  their  many  neighboring 
mounds,  were  erected  with  immediate  reference  to 
sacrificial  and  sepulchral  purposes. 

"  But  you  certainly  will  not  visit  them  in  this  un- 
settled state  of  the  country — a  revolution  going  on, 
with  rebel  raids,  and  even  rebel  watch-fires  pointed 


THE   ENVIRONS   OF   THE   CITY   OF    MEXICO.      73 

out  on  the  distant  hill-sides.  You  must  not  think  of 
it  It  is  not  safe — "  etc.  etc.,  were  the  kind  and  encour- 
aging remarks  of  American  and  Mexican  friends  alike. 
We  were  a  trifle  staggered  at  first,  but  an  experience 
of  similar  warnings  in  southern  Italy,  Sicily,  Spain, 
and  the  East,  had  long  since  convinced  us  that  if  you 
want  to  do  or  see  a  thing  very  much,  you  had  better 
try  it,  unless  you  are  personally  and  absolutely  sure 
of  harm  ;  and  then,  if  it  is  only  the  matter  of  a  few 
dollars'  loss,  why,  put  them  in  your  pocket  before 
you  start,  that  your  brigand  brethren  may  not  be  in- 
duced to  harshness  by  their  disappointment.  "  Never 
turn  back  on  a  mere  rumor  or  report,"  ought  to  be  a 
maxim  graven  on  the  back  or  at  the  head  of 
every  guide-book.  We  have  known  friends  to  lose 
the  best  things  of  all  foreign  travel  by  what  we  cannot 
but  consider  an  over-prudence  in  such  matters  ;  and 
we  ourselves  have  been  more  than  once  rewarded  by 
the  infinite  satisfaction,  almost  equal  to  that  of  the 
actual  visit,  of  not  haying  allowed  ourselves  to  be 
stopped  by  idle,  fear-begotten  tales. 

So  behold  us,  very  early  on  a  fresh  Spring  morn- 
ing, in  the  train  for  San  Juan — very  early,  indeed,  for 


74  MEXICO  AS    IT   IS. 

we  were  well  on  our  way  before  "  old  Sol  "  conde- 
scended to  rise  and  beam  rubicundly  on  the  sleeping 
snows  of  Popocatepetl.  It  was  glorious  to  see  her,  and 
her  fair  sister  Istacyhuatl  flush  with  queenly  joy  at 
his  return,  and  open  a  way  for  his  kingly  light  over 
their  trackless  slopes  to  the  sweet  smiling  plains  be- 
low. 

San  Juan  is  a  few  stations  from  Mexico  on  the  way 
to  Vera  Cruz.  We  were  there  by  7  A.  M.,  and  found 
at  the  little  station,  what  is  to  be  found,  indeed,  every- 
where, as  we  believe  to  have  before  remarked,  an 
excellent  cup  of  coffee,  good  bread,  and  a  civil  station- 
master,  not  omitting  to  mention  a  more  than  willing 
Indian  to  guide  us.  This  Indian  was  not  alone,  it  is 
unnecessary  to  remark.  His  friends  and  neighbors 
were  with  him  on  speculative  errand.  These  natives 
were  of  all  ages,  and  all  equally  anxious  to  dispose  of 
the  many  little  image  relics,  which,  we  incline  to  think, 
are  as  yet  too  abundantly  found,  and  the  place,  more- 
over, too  little  visited,  to  require  manufacture.  Doubt- 
less when  the  supply  is  exhausted,  and  "Brown,  Jones, 
and  Robinson"  have  finally  reached  here,  under  the 
fatherly  guidance  of  Mr.  Cook,  we  will  see  that  the 


THE   ENVIRONS  OF   THE    CITY   OF  MEXICO.      75 

genius  of  this  aspiring  age,  which  has  sent  scarabei 
to  Egypt,  "  antiques"  to  Italy,  and  idols  to  Africa, 
will  not  be  wanting  to  the  Mexican  emergency. 

Where  these  Indians  all  lived  was  at  first  a  mys- 
tery, for  which  indeed  we  were  prepared  on  such  an 
expedition.  Nothing  in  the  way  of  buildings  was 
visible  but  the  station,  and  an  independent  looking 
old  church  near  by ;  but  we  soon  discovered  a  col- 
lection of  hovels  almost  concealed  by  hedges  of  gigan- 
tic cacti.  We  had  never  seen  such  immense  plants  of 
the  kind — frequently  so  large  that  we  could  sit  in  their 
shade,  and  constituting  with  the  pepper  tree  the  prin- 
cipal vegetation  of  the  fields  and  mounds. 

The  pyramids  are  several  miles  distant  from  the 
hamlet,  and  to  tell  the  whole  warning  truth,  the  way 
is  through  ploughed  fields  and  under  a  burning  sun. 
But  we  doubt  that  the  eagerness  of  the  gold  or 
diamond  seeker  is  greater,  and  certainly  it  is  not  as 
wholesome,  as  that  with  which  we  explored  the 
furrows  for  pottery  relics,  and  to  our  frequent  success. 
The  peasants,  in  their  rude,  primitive  ploughing,  turn 
up  quantities  of  these  little  heads,  and  most  remark- 
able to  relate,  we  found  no  two  alike.  They  are 


76  MEXICO   AS  IT   IS. 

almost  all  extremely  grotesque;  sometimes  with 
crowns  or  other  emblematic  covering.  Occasionally 
they  possess  a  neck ;  some  even  rejoice  in  shoulders, 
and  may  vie  with  the  conventional  cherub;  but  few, 
very  few  indeed,  are  ever  found  of  a  complete  figure. 
For  some  mysterious  reason  the  Aztec  artificer  could 
only  reproduce  the  master  part  of  the  human  frame ; 
and  when  we  accept  the  theory  that  these  countless 
fragilities  were  given  by  the  Aztec  priests  connected 
with  these  sacrificial  pyramids,  as  idols  or  image 
souvenirs  to  the  myriads  of  pilgrim  worshippers,  we 
can  perhaps  better  conjecture  about  the  secret  of 
their  form.  And  not  only  do  you  pick  up  these 
curious  heads,  but  also  a  double-socket  piece  of 
pottery,  apparently  intended  for  purposes  of  light, 
and  greatest  rarity  of  all,  we  found  in  a  furrow,  a 
small  rude  calendar,  also  of  pottery,,  and  circular, 
with  singular  hieroglyphics. 

The  first  pyramid  we  ascended  was  that  called  the 
Pyramid  of  the  Sun.  Its  base  line  measures  over 
seven  hundred  feet,  and  its  perpendicular  height  is 
more  than  two  hundred  feet,  (we  find  that  measure- 
ments differ.)  The  ascent  is  arduous — a  broiling  sun 


THE    ENVIRONS   OF  THE   CITY   OF   MEXICO.      ?/ 

would  suffice  to  make  it  so ;  but  when  is  added  a 
surface  of  sharp  lava  stones,  one  is  forcibly  reminded 
of  Vesuvius-climbing.  There  are  frequent  traces  of 
a  former  coating  of  cement,  and  very  marked  signs 
of  terracing.  The  interior,  as  far  as  excavated, 
seems  to  be  of  layers  of  stones,  tufa,  mud,  etc.  The 
summit  area  is  level,  and  measures  about  sixty  feet 
by  ninety,  with  an  almost  perfect  orientation. 

Clavigero  states  that  there  were  formerly  temples 
on  these  pyramids,  and  within  them  immense  idols 
of  stone,  covered  with  gold.  The  Pyramid  of  the 
Sun  had  in  its  grooved  breast  a  large  golden  image 
of  the  planet,  which  was  soon  added  to  the  treasures 
of  the  Spanish  conquerors,  and  the  idol  was  over- 
thrown by  the  orders  of  the  Bishop— some  of  the 
huge  fragments  in  the  neighborhood  probably  formed 
a  part  of  it. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  these  ancient  struc- 
tures were  models  of  the  later  Aztec  Teocallis — those 
curious  temple  mounds,  which  were  the  centre  of 
worship  in  all  Aztec  communities.  It  is  conjectured 
that  their  ruinous,  and  now  almost  natural  surface  of 
earth  and  vegetation  is  due  to  the  effort  made  by 


/8  MEXICO    AS   IT  IS. 

the  more  civilized  founders  to  cover  and  conceal 
them  from  future  savage  invasions.  And,  at  the 
risk  of  repetition,  we  must  add  that  their  remarkable 
correspondence  to  similar  Egyptian  constructions 
adds,  if  anything,  to  the  piquancy  of  mystery  en- 
veloping them. 

We  found  the  summit  strewn  with  various  debris, 
and  among  them  many  evidently  wrought  pieces  of 
obsidian,  which  was  the  flinty  material  of  the  knives 
used  in  Aztec  sacrifice. 

The  view  from  this  elevation  is  very  striking,  not 
only  of  the  surrounding  country  with  its  grand 
features  and  peculiar  vegetation,  but  also  of  the  many 
mounds  or  tumuli,  arranged  with  more  or  less  of 
regularity  in  groups  and  squares,  and  most  remark- 
ably in  one  long  avenue  extending  between  the  two 
great  pyramids.  If,  from  the  vast  amount  of  ruinous 
remains  by  the  river-bed  and  elsewhere  near,  anti- 
quarian conjecture  be  true  that  a  mighty  city  once 
occupied  their  site,  have  we  not  here  a  wonderful 
sacrificial  and  sepulchral  suburb,  like  unto  those  of 
Egypt,  Greece,  and  Rome  in  their  proudest  days  ? 

What  has  been  said  of  the  Sun  Pyramid  will  apply 


THE   ENVIRONS   OF   THE   CITY   OF   MEXICO.      79 

to  the  Pyramid  of  the  Moon,  except  that  the  latter 
is  smaller,  and  that  within  it  have  been  discovered 
some  passages  and  chambers,  but  nothing  to  indi- 
cate their  character. 

The  avenue  of  tumuli  between,  called  by  native 
tradition  "  the  path  of  the  dead,"  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting  and  mysterious  features  of  the  whole  ar- 
rangement. These  mounds  reach  to  thirty  feet  in 
height,  and  are  entirely  overgrown  with  vegetation, 
though  in  some  of  them  are  remains  of  masonry  and 
stucco,  and  even  of  color.  The  avenue  is  two 
hundred  and  fifty  feet  wide,  and  we  found  the  well- 
preserved  remains  of  terrace  steps  descending  from 
the  mounds  to  the  roadway. 

Much  of  the  solid  material  used  in  their  construc- 
tion, as  also  of  the  idol  statues,  has  been  destroyed 
or  carried  away  from  that  same  vandal  instinct  which 
is  robbing  everywhere  the  monumental  past ;  or,  at 
the  best,  transferring  to  museums  that  which  only 
has  its  proper  value  amid  the  associations  of  its  his- 
tory. But  still  we  found,  as  before  remarked,  some 
massive  fragments,  and  especially  one  immense 
monolithic  idol,  almost  perfect  in  preservation,  stand- 


8O  MEXICO  AS  IT  IS. 

ing  in  a  helpless,  half-disinterred  condition,  most 
wonderfully  suggestive,  may  we  add,  of  that  poor 
Pagan  past,  which  an  aping  materialism  would  seek 
presently  to  revive. 

Besides  these  pyramids  and  mounds  there  are 
other  curious  formations,  one  called  the  "  Citadel,"  a 
large  and  regularly  embanked  square,  and  also  seve- 
ral smaller  enclosures,  the  natural  floor  of  which  was 
as  level  and  smooth  as  though  it  had  been  rolled  but 
yesterday.  It  is  probable  that  a  huge  idol  stood  on 
a  central  mound  of  these  sepulchral  squares. 

Altogether,  the  quantity  and  vastness  of  these  re- 
mains, and  the  doubt  concerning  them — their  purposes 
and  history,  makes  San  Juan  Teotihuacan  one  of  the 
most  interesting  of  modern  problems,  and  most 
delightful  of  excursions.  As  we  returned  to  the 
capital  in  the  early  evening,  fatigued  indeed  from 
the  heat  and  effort,  but  laden  with  Indian  relics,  and 
safe  as  regards  our  skins  and  ducats,  we  could  not 
but  feel  that  here  again  was  much  more  than  enough 
to  repay  a  trip  to  Mexico. 


TERRA    COTTA    HEAD. 
Found  near  the  Pyramids  of  San  Joan  Teotihuacan. 


IX. 

THE  CITY   OF   MEXICO   AND   ITS   ENVIRONS. 

(Concluded.) 

ONE  of  the  most  interesting  excursions  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Capital  is  to  the  famous 
old  tree  of  the  Noche  Trista.  The  story  is,  that  dur- 
ing the  terrible  retreat  of  Cortes  from  the  city,  when 
his  little  veteran  army  was  beset  by  myriads  of  out- 
raged and  relentless  foes,  until  the  very  canals  ran 
blood,  and  the  broken  bridges  were  replaced  by  piles 
of  dead  and  dying  warriors,  the  great  captain  rallied 
and  rested  his  shattered  and  dispirited  forces  near  this 
enormous  tree,  making  it  his  own  shelter,  if  we  re- 
member rightly  the  tradition.  It  is  situated  about  a 
couple  of  miles  from  the  city,  and  reached  by  conve- 
nient horse-cars,  on  a  beautiful  and  shaded  avenue. 
On  the  way  you  pass  that  saddest  and  most  suggest- 
ive spot  in  every  foreign  city — the  Protestant  cem- 


THE   ENVIRONS  OF  THE    CITY   OF  MEXICO.      83 

etery.  Nothing  could  be  more  retired  and  delight- 
fully laid  out  than  this  last  resting-place  for  wanderers 
in  restless  Mexico. 

We  found  the  historical  tree  to  be  of  the  same  fam- 
ily as  the  Chapultepec  giants,  and  of  almost  equal 
proportions,  but  sadly  decayed,  and  apparently 
much  mutilated  by  fuel  and  relic  hunters  ;  now  pro- 
tected, however,  by  a  substantial  railing. 

Could  such  trees  to  their  actual  and  patriarchal 
life  only  add  the  gift  of  speech,  what  tales  could  they 
not  tell  ?  Who  would  not  more  than  delight  to 
listen  to  the  mystic  and  majestic  eloquence  of  Le- 
banon's lofty  cedars,  or  better  still,  to  thrill  beneath 
the  whisper  of  Gethsemane's  sacred  olives  ?  So  this 
old  tree  of  the  Noche  Trista  could  doubtless  reveal 
such  a  scene  of  bitter  tears  and  utter  agony  as  hardly 
to  be  believed,  in  that  bood-stained  drama  of  ruth- 
less greed,  called  "  the  Conquest  of  Mexico." 

And,  speaking  of  military  achievements  leads  us  to 
the  relation  of  a  brief  interview  we  had  with  the  once 
famous  Santa  Anna,  whose  decease  we  have  noticed 
in  the  public  journals  since  our  return  home.  The 
old  man  was  then  very  infirm,  being  in  his  eightieth 


84  MEXICO   AS    IT   IS. 

year,  and  requiring  support  as  he  stood.  He 
received  us  in  his  plain  dwelling  with  exceeding  cour- 
tesy, as  gallant  to  the  ladies  of  our  party  as  though 
he  were  welcoming  them  from  the  heyday  of  his 
dictatorial  throne.  It  was  not  very  difficult  to  read 
in  the  wreck  of  that  strong  countenance  and  vigor- 
ous frame  the  secret  of  a  turbulent  and  vicissitudinous 
career — a  career  that  might  have  led  to  anything 
and  everything,  perhaps,  had  it  been  based  on  the 
incorruptibility  of  a  Juarez,  had  it  combined  with 
native  force  the  magnanimity  of  a  Maximilian. 

There  is,  indeed,  no  doubt  about  the  brains  of 
Mexico.  With  such  men,  as  she  possesses,  at  her 
helm,  she  may  hope  for  any  grandeur  of  the  future. 
Faith,  honesty,  patience  are  her  special  need  of  the 


present-jCand  maywe   always  do  our  political  part 



and  fraternal  duty  as  well,  in  sending  to  represent_us^ 
at  "  our  sister  republic/^  [such  high-toned  Christian 
gentlemen  as  he  who  now  honors  us  by  his  diplomatic 
service — it  is  with  pleasure  and  gratitude  we  men- 
tion his  name — Mr.  Foster,  of  Indiana. 

And  so  we  must  say  good-bye  to  the  grand  old. 
city  !     We   feel   we   have  not  half  done  it  justice. 


THE   ENVIRONS   OF   THE  CITY   OF  MEXICO.      85 

There  is  so  much  of  pleasing  and  varied  interest 
coming  up  in  every  street,  at  every  corner.  The 
light,  the  air,  the  costumes  and  characteristics  form 
a  continual  feast  of  luxuriant  and  stimulating  beauty. 
We  wished  much  to  visit  the  silver  mines  of  the  in- 
terior, and  the  fair  city  of  Cuernavaca,  once  the 
princely  home  of  Cortes.  We  were  even  tempted  to 
try  a  passage  across  the  country  to  the  Pacific  coast 
—  Acapulco  or  Manzanilla;  but  lack  of  time, 
wretched  accommodations  for  ladies,  and  last  but 
not  least,  the  increasing  revolution,  made  it  seem  the 
sheerest  folly,  as  was  indeed  proven  by  the  unsuc- 
cessful attempt  of  a  more  daring  friend. 

The  military  condition  of  the  atmosphere  became 
really  exciting  before  we  left  the  capital.  The  streets 
were  full  of  soldiers,  and  everything  looked  as  if  the 
nervousness  of  our  good  Mexican  friends  had  attained 
some  foundation  of  fact.  We  found  the  guards 
doubled  on  all  the  trains,  which  did  not  in  the  least, 
however,  diminish  our  enjoyment  of  the  ride  to 
Puebla.  We  returned  by  the  railway  to  Vera  Cruz 
as  far  as  Apizaco,  which  is  four  or  five  hours  from 
the  city  of  Mexico ;  and  here  occurred  an  incident, 


86  MEXICO  AS    IT  IS. 

which,  fortunately;,  we  can  relate  with  entire  equa- 
nimity, and  which  wilj^give  the  uninitiated  a  good 
idea ofhow  somejnalters^are  ^managed  nTarsouthern 
republic. 

Thanks  to  the  exceeding  courtesy  of  the  managing 
director  of  the  road,  a  special  car  was  placed  at  our 
disposition,  and  a  special  servant  was  assigned  to 
take  charge  of  it  At  Apizaco  we  breakfasted  very 
comfortably,  and  started  off  on  "the  branch  line  to 
Puebla.  One  of  our  party,  taking  up  his  wallet  soon 
after,  discovered  that  the  lock  had  been  tampered 
with,  and  a  roll  of  silver  dollars  extracted.  The 
writer  of  this  was  not  long  in  examining  his  own  bag, 
and  found  himself  the  only  other  tourist  thus  dis- 
tinguished. 

What  is  now  to  be  done  ?  Of  course  the  silver  is 
lost,  but  there  is  some  satisfaction  in  complaint,  and 
most  happily  a  station  where  we  can  telegraph  is  close 
at  hand — only  about  an  hour  from  Puebla,  (mark  this 
fact!)  Hardly  have  we  stopped  before  one  of  our 
friends  —  ever  kindly,  cool,  and  considerate  —  has 
jumped  out  and  sent  a  despatch  back  to  Apizaco. 
We  sink  back  in  our  seats,  sigh  again  over  our 


THE    ENVIRONS   OF   THE   CITY    OF   MEXICO.      87 

vanished  dollars,  and  only  wish  they  had  gone  to 
one  of  the  many  good  works  of  the  Reforming 
Church  in  the  Capital — to  the  excellent  orphanage, 
e.  g.,  or  anywhere  rather  than  to  the  rascal  who  got 
them! 

"An  hour  passed  on."  We  whistle  up  to  the 
platform  of  Puebla.  As  we  alight  a  uniformed 
official  approaches  and  courteously  begs  the  gentle- 
man who  has  telegraphed  to  step  to  the  office  of  the 
superintendent. 

Visions  of  legal  difficulties  and  detentions  float 
across  our  anxious  minds.  We  enter  the  little 
room,  and  find  another  gentlemanly  agent,  who 
with  scarcely  any  preliminaries,  inquires  the  amount 
we  have  lost,  and  to  our  exact  reply  hands  us  back 
all  our  dear,  lost  dollars,  save  one.  Surely  this  is 
"  presto  magic !"  And  how  could  it  all  so  quickly 
have  been  accomplished?  It  seems  our  dispatch 
had  aroused  the  whole  responsible  force  at  Apizaco. 
Mutual  conference  failed  to  disclose  any  suspicion  of 
the  employes  there ;  but  distrust  was  expressed  re- 
specting the  special  servant  of  our  car,  and  orders 
were  immediately  telegraphed  to  Puebla  to  have  him 


88  MEXICO   AS  IT   IS. 

arrested  on  the  arrival  of  our  train.  This  was 
promptly  done.  The  money  was  found  on  him,  and 
he  was  lodged  in  jail  before  we  reached  our  own 
hotel !  No  deposition,  no  trial,  no  inconvenience  to 
any  one  but  the  criminal,  who  was  sent  on  to  the 
army  the  next  day,  his  punishment  being  to  fight 
the  battles  of  his  country  !  "  Duke  est"  etc. 

For  promptitude,  precision,  and  entire  absence  of 
unnecessary  formalities,  we  challenge  the  nineteenth 
century  to  produce  anything  more  satisfactory  ! 


VIEW    IN    THE    PLAZA    IN    THE   CITY    OF   PUEBLA. 


X. 

PUEBLA   AND   CHOLULA. 

THE  city  of  Puebla  ranks  next  to  tHe  Capital  in 
size  and  importance,  and  first  in  religious  esti- 
mation. It  lies  at  about  the  same  elevation  as  the 
City  of  Mexico,  with  picturesque  environs,  culminat- 
ing on  the  one  side  in  solitary  and  sombre  Malin- 
che — -a  name  of  interest  from  its  having  been  applied 
by  the  natives  to  both  Cortes  and  his  fair  and  faithful 
Indian  companion — and  on  the  other  side,  in  our  old 
volcanic  friends  Popocatepetl  and  Istacyhuatl.  You 
will  remember  that  the  march  of  the  Spanish  con- 
querors, after  the  occupation  and  massacre  of  Cholula, 
was  over  the  lofty  ridge  connecting  the  two  great 
mountains,  whence  first  dawned  upon  their  wayworn 
vision  the  bewildering  fascinations  of  the  valley  of 
Mexico. 

Puebla   is    well-built,    well-preserved,    clean,    and 


92  MEXICO    AS   IT   IS. 

contains  about  seventy  thousand  inhabitants ;  but  to 
the  enlightened  American,  all  these  advantages  will 
be  almost  annulled  by  the  fact  that  it  has  not  one 
daily  newspaper ! 

Our  hotel  was  ideal.  Fancy  a  picturesque  old 
convent,  toned  by  age  into  all  softness  of  color  and 
shade,  built  around  a  court  half- filled  wi,th  old- 
fashioned  coaches — fancy  stepping  from  your  bal- 
conied room  out  into  a  glorious  cloister,  where 
bordered  and  bloomed  tropical  flowers  and  warbled 
an  aviary  of  tropical  birds  ! 

Fancy  this  by  a  Mexican  sunlight ;  fancy  it  by  a 
Mexican  moonlight,  and  you  have  the  Hotel  des 
Diligences  in  Puebla.  And  when  we  add  that  the 
beds  are  good  and  the  table  fair,  you  will  see 
that  a  few  days  in  Puebla  are  not  at  all  to  be 
dreaded. 

Though  threatened  by  revolution  without  and 
within,  yet  the  town  seemed  quiet  and  orderly,  and 
we  soon  set  forth  to  become  better  acquainted  with 
it  We  found  many  nice-looking  shops,  and  a  num- 
ber of  attractive  churches.  The  Cathedral  stands  on 
one  side  of  the  grand  square,  which  is  handsomely 


PUEBLA   AND   CHOLULA.  93 

laid  out,  and  surrounded  on  the  other  sides  with 
business  arcades. 

In  considering,  this  Cathedral,  we  are  brought  to 
explain  our  allusion  above  to  the  sacred  primacy  of 
the  Pueblan  city.  It  is  honored  by  the  name  of 
"Puebla  de  los  Angeles,"  because  in  the  building 
of  its  great  church,  these  holy  co-workers  were  said 
to  have  done  as  much  by  night  as  the  people  did 
by  day.  Each  morning's  light  displayed  the  miracu- 
lous addition ! 

Though  smaller  than  the  Cathedral  of  Mexico,  it 
is  more  magnificent  in  almost  every  respect  It  may 
readily  be  called  one  of  the  finest  churches  in  the 
world.  It  is  of  basaltic  material,  supported  by  mas- 
sive buttresses,  and  surmounted  by  lofty  towers. 

As  is  usual  in  Latin  countries,  it  stands  on  an 
immense  platform,  reached  by  steps  at  several  points, 
and  adding  much  to  the  grandness  of  effect. 

Its  interior  arrangement  is  similar  to  that  of  the 
Cathedral  of  Mexico,  with  its  mass  of  altars  and  choir 
taking  up  the  middle  of  the  nave,  and  sadly  modify- 
ing the  impression.  But  its  gorgeous  decorations — 
of  gilding  everywhere — over  altars  and  baldacchino, 


94  MEXICO  AS  IT   IS. 

columns  and  walls,  its  splendid  paintings  and  carvings 
and  marbles — all  this  makes  a  tout  ensemble  of  be- 
wildering majesty  and  beauty.  The  inlaid  wood- 
work of  the  choir  cannot  be  surpassed  in  all  Europe. 
The  old  missals  would  honor  any  shelf  of  the  Vatican, 
and  beneath  the  grand  altar  is  a  vault  chamber  of 
precious  marbles  and  metals  for  the  interment  of 
Puebla's  bishops.  No  princely  pope  could  prepare 
for  himself  a  prouder  sepulchre. 

The  sacristy  is  a  gem  of  interest.  Masterly  paint- 
ings and  most  sumptuous  appointments  give  it  a 
regal  air ;  and  again  we  were  struck  by  the  magnifi- 
cence of  a  marble  lavatory.  Italy  can  produce 
nothing  to  compare  with  it  in  our  memory. 

But  perhaps  the  unique  wonder  of  all  is  the  chap- 
ter-room —  an  oblong,  lofty  apartment,  hung  with 
tapestries,  which  were  presented  to  the  Cathedral  by 
Charles  V.,  having  been  worked  by  the  ladies  of  his 
court.  The  subjects  are  mostly  allegorical,  concern- 
ing the  newly  discovered  and  conquered  Ame- 
ricas. 

There  hang  also  on  the  walls  most  interesting  por- 
traits of  the  great  Emperor  and  of  the  Pueblan 


PUEBLA    AND   CHOLULA.  95 

Bishops.     The  old  furniture  of  the  room  would  make 
an  antiquary's  mouth  fairly  to  water. 

The  view  from  the  belfry  is  superb.  The  city  lies 
mapped  out  before  you,  and  you  read  much  of  the 
history  of  this  most  romantic  country  in  the  sur- 
rounding beauty  and  grandeur  of  configuration. 

Our  native  guide,  however,  as  well  as  several 
irrepressible  youths,  who  had  followed  him,  took 
much  more  interest  in  pointing  out  to  us  the  scenes 
of  recent  revolutionary  conflict,  an  engagement  with 
the  "  Pronunciarnentos  "  having  taken  place  only  the 
day  before. 

Indeed  our  evening  was  mostly  spent  in  discussing 
our  own  relations  to  the  exciting  state  of  affairs,  our 
chances  of  further  sight-seeing,  and  of  escape  to  the 
sea  coast.  An  ultimatum  had  been  sent  to  the  rail- 
way company  by  the  rebels,  with  the  threat  that  if 
the  amount  of  money  demanded  were  not  forth- 
coming, the  road  would  be  cut  It  was  understood 
that  the  allotted  period  had  about  expired,  and  that 
the  Company  had  refused  the  outrageous  demand. 
The  prospect  of  a  compulsory  sojourn  in  Puebla, 
under  the  circumstances,  was  not  altogether  one  of 


96  MEXICO   AS  IT  IS. 

charms  !  But  we  could  not  give  up  Cholula,  and 
— thanks  very  much  to  the  kind  encouragement  and 
assistance  of  a  resident  American  missionary — we 
were  not  obliged  to  do  so.  Not  but  that  we  re- 
ceived warnings  enough  on  all  hands,  and  were  con- 
sidered, indeed,  as  running  our  heads  unnecessarily 
into  the  lion's  mouth. 

We  called  on  a  government  official,  who  said  he 
would  give  us  an  escort,  if  possible ;  but  when  the 
hour  of  departure  arrived,  no  soldiers  had  appeared, 
and  so  our  little  party  set  out,  as  true  tourists  should 
ever  do,  "sans  peur  et  sans  reproche." 

Cholula  is  about  three  leagues  distant  from  Puebla. 
The  road  is  tolerable,  and  we  found  comfortable  and 
cheap  conveyances.  It  was  a  very  quiet  drive  ;  the 
engagement  of  a  day  or  two  previous  would  account 
for  the  absence  of  vehicles,  but  allow  for  the  frequent 
passing  of  poor,  pedestrian  peasants  —  principally 
women — wearily  returning  from  market,  and  occa- 
sionally an  armed  and  savage-looking  horseman, 
whose  weapons,  however,  were  probably  only  for 
self-defence  in  this  Ishmaelitish  country. 

The  land   looked   fertile,    and    was    green    with 


PUEBLA   AND   CHOLULA.  97 

promising  crops,  especially  as  we  approached 
Cholula,  which  must  have  been  a  garden  spot  of  love- 
liness and  wealth. 

The  world-famed  Pyramid  rises  conspicuously 
out  of  the  plain,  but  appearing  less  definitely  marked 
as  you  approach  it.  In  fact,  as  compared  with  that 
of  San  Juan,  it  is  a  disappointment — its  pyramidal 
character  being  almost  destroyed  by  the  ravages  of 
time.  Its  edges  are  very  much  broken,  and  its  sides 
are  entirely  overgrown.  But  it  is  of  much  easier 
ascent.  Indeed  you  could  drive  to  the  summit  over 
a  broad  road  constructed  by  the  Spaniards,  and 
leading  to  the  commanding  Church,  dedicated  to 
the  Virgin  of  Remedies.  This  chapel  was  a  substi- 
tution by  the  Spaniards  for  the  worship  of  Quetzal- 
coatl,  the  great,  good  and  fair  god  of  the  Aztecs. 
Having  been  destroyed,  (by  fire,  we  believe,)  the 
church  has  been  recently  reconstructed,  and  decorated 
with  that  cheap  tawdriness  of  taste,  which,  we  regret 
to  say,  has  become  characteristic  of  Roman  Church 
interiors. 

The  central  object  of  worship  upon  the  grand 
altar  is  one  of  those  doll-images,  in  which  the 
7 


98  MEXICO   AS    IT  IS. 

invincible  conquerors  placed  such  credulous  reli- 
ance. 

The  original  image  of  the  celebrated  Virgin  de  los 
Remedies  is  said  to  have  been  carried  to  Mexico 
by  a  soldier  of  Cortes'  army.  After  the  terrible 
Noche  Trista,  it  was  concealed,  and  indeed,  altogether 
disappeared  for  a  time;  it  was  reserved  for  a  lucky 
Indian  to  discover  it  in  a  maguey  plant  on  the  sum- 
mit of  a  barren  mountain.  It  was  a  day  of  jubilee 
for  the  Spaniards.  A  church  was  built  on  the  spot, 
which  soon  became  a  frequented  shrine,  with  attend- 
ant priests,  treasurer,  camarista,  etc.,  etc.  She  be- 
came the  rich  object  of  endowments,  votive  offerings, 
legacies,  etc.,  was  carried  about  in  time  of  drought, 
and  adored  by  the  passers  by,  the  Viceroy  himself 
leading  her  train.  She  became  the  great  rival  of 
our  Indian  Lady  of  Guadalupe.  On  one  occasion  of 
victory  she  was  brought  to  the  City  of  Mexico 
dressed  as  a  general ;  on  another  of  defeat,  her  pass- 
port was  signed  to  leave  the  country,  which  sentence 
was  not,  however,  carried  out  Well  may  we  pray — 
'  God  save  such  a  State  !' 

From  the  tower  of  this  church  you  have  a  most 


PUEBLA   AND   CHOLULA.  99 

comprehensive  and  satisfactory  view,  as  also,  we 
should  remark,  from  the  extensive  summit  area  on 
which  the  church  is  built  The  effect  of  looking 
over  the  parapet  wall  upon  the  artificially  precipitous 
sides  to  the  rich  level  plain  below,  is  very  'striking. 

The  vast  site  of  the  ancient  city  is  perfectly  evi- 
dent from  the  marked  lines  of  its  regular  streets, 
stretching  far  beyond  the  now  insignificant  town  into 
its  surrounding  fields  and  plantations.  From  this 
observation  we  should  judge  the  pyramid  or  Teocalli 
to  have  occupied  the  centre  of  the  old  Cholula,  which 
was  in  its  glory  before  the  tenth  century  of  our  era. 
But  tradition  would  seem  to  indicate  that  this 
pyramid  was  built  even  earlier,  probably  as  early  as 
the  sixth  or  seventh  century — the  Olmec  period  of 
Mexican  history. 

Its  base — about  1440  feet  square,  and  covering 
forty  acres — is  thus  more  than  twice  as  large  as 
Cheops.  The  Mexican  pyramid  is  about  two  hun- 
dred feet  high,  which  is  a  little  more  than  the  eleva- 
tion of  Egyptian  Mycerinus.  Its  summit  platform  is 
about  two  hundred  feet  square.  Its  sides  face  the 
cardinal  points,  and  show  marked  traces  of  four 


IOO  MEXICO  AS   IT  IS. 

terraced  stories.  It  seems  to  have  been  built  of 
adobe,  with  alternate  layers  of  clay  or  rubble. 

Humboldt's  remarks  respecting  it  are  most  interest- 
ing. "The  construction  of  the  teocalli  recalls  the 
oldest  monuments  to  which  the  history  of  our  race 
reaches."  ..."  Imagine  a  square  four 
times  greater  than  that  of  the  Place  Vendome  in 
Paris,  covered  with  layers  of  bricks,  rising  to  twice 
the  elevation  of  the  Louvre !" 

As  regards  the  object  and  use  of  this  great  monu- 
ment, it  is  but  a  repetition  of  the  wonder  and  mystery 
of  San  Juan.  No  thorough  excavation  or  examina- 
tion has  ever  been  made  of  the  interior. 

A  tomb  chamber  has  been  found,  which  contained 
two  skeletons,  some  idols  and  pottery ;  but  from  the 
relative  position  and  character  of  this  tomb,  it  can 
hardly  be  supposed  that  sepulture  was  the  main, 
original  object  of  the  pyramid. 

Within  known  times  there  has  always  been  a 
temple  of  worship  upon  the  summit  Frequently 
destroyed  by  internecine  wars,  the  magnificent  struc- 
ture suffered  its  final  demolition  by  the  invading  Span- 
iards— to  be  replaced  by  idol  worship  in  another  form ! 


A    MEXICAN     IDOL. 


XI. 

CHOLULA  —  Continued. 

"  Mexitli,  woman-born,  who,  from  the  womb, 
Child  of  no  mortal  sire,  leap'd  terrible, 
The  armed  avenger  of  his  mother's  fame  ; 
And  he  whose  will  the  subject  winds  obey, 
Quetzalcoatl  ;  and  Tlaloc,  water-god, 
And  all  the  hosts  of  deities,  whose  power 
Requites  with  bounty  Aztlan's  pious  zeal, 
Health  and  rich  increase  giving  to  her  sons, 
And  withering  in  the  war  her  enemies." 


Madoc. 

OUR  brief  study  of  the  pyramid  of  Cholula 
would  lead  us  very  appropriately  to  consider 
for  a  moment  the  subject  of  Mexican  mythology, 
which,  essentially  linked  as  it  is  with  Mexican  history, 
must  form  a  prime  element  of  interest  to  the  intelli- 
gent traveller. 

All  national  and  tribal  histories  begin  with  myths, 
out  of  whose  mistiness  tower  grand  deified  forms  and 
fancies  of  vice  and  virtue.  Such  are  the  histories  of 


104  MEXICO   AS  IT  IS. 

Egypt,  Greece  and  Rome — and  such  no  less  is  the 
history  of  Anahuac. 

There,  as  elsewhere,  may  we  find  to  our  Christian 
comfort,  that  the  great  central  object  of  faith  and 
adoration  is  a  good  and  omnipotent  GOD,  whose 
worship — however  perverted  and  corrupted — shows 
distinct  traces  of  earliest  and  purest  revelation. 

It  is  this  very  perversion  and  corruption,  which  so 
soon  makes  other  and  meaner  gods,  and  peoples  the 
wilds  of  nature  with  creations  of  fear  and  favor. 

Such  was  the  terrible  Huitzilopochtli — "the  Mex- 
ican Mars  " — a  sanguinary  monster,  his  shrine  ever 
reeking  with  human  sacrifices.  And  such,  in  lesser 
and  varied  degree,  were  many  others — even  to  the 
least  of  all — "the  Penates  or  household  gods," 
whose  images — according  to  a  superstitious  custom 
far  from  extinct  even  in  Christian  lands — were  found 
in  every  dwelling. 

Indeed,  according  to  Prescott,  who,  with  a  histo- 
rian's license,  may  possibly  have  exaggerated  a  little, 
it  is  more  than  astonishing  to  notice  the  ritual 
resemblances  between  the  heathenism  of  the  Aztecs 
and  the  religion  introduced  by  the  "  most  Catholic  " 


CHOLULA.  105 

conquerors — a  resemblance  extending  even  into  the 
realm  of  sacraments. 

It  is  a  more  than  curious  fact,  that  the  symbol  of 
the  cross  was  known  to  the  Indians  before  the  ar- 
rival of  Cortes.  It  is  stated  that  a  stone  cross  was 
found  in  Yucatan,  and  that  a  native  prophet  pro- 
claimed the  near  arrival  of  a  stranger  race,  bearing 
the  cross  as  their  symbol. 

More  wonderful  still,  in  this  very  city  of  Cholula 
there  is  said  to  have  been  a  temple  of  the  Holy 
Cross  in  the  Toltec  era. 

In  Oajaca  there  was  a  cross  regarded  by  the  na- 
tives with  the  utmost  veneration.  By  order  of  an 
early  Spanish  Bishop,  it  was  sumptuously  enshrined. 
An  account  of  it,  with  a  portion  of  its  wood,  in  cross 
shape,  was  sent  to  Paul  V.,  who  welcomed  it  on  his 
knees,  to  the  hymn,  "  Vexilla  Regis,"  etc. 

How  far  all  these  statements  and  stories  found  root 
in  the  fertile  and  fashioning  faith  of  the  early  Mexican 
Church,  we  will  not  attempt  to  determine.  It  is  no 
more  unlikely,  however,  that  the  simple,  but  sublime 
symbol  should  have  been  found  amid  the  relics  of 
the  mysterious  Mexican  races,  than  that  it  should  be 


106  MEXICO    AS   IT  IS. 

seen  to-day  indelibly  graven  on  the  stone  of  Egypt's 
earliest  temples. 

But  to  return  to  our  more  immediate  theme.  By 
far  the  most  interesting  personage  in  Aztec  mytho- 
logy was  he,  whom  we  have  previously  mentioned 
—  Quetzalcoatl  —  the  grand,  mysterious  god  of  the 
earth  and  air — a  character  of  real  grace  and  glory 
— invested  with  an  ideality  and  sublimity,  to  which 
it  would  be  difficult  to  find  an  equal  in  the  polluted 
Pantheon  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

The  traditions  of  Anahuac  speak  of  an  early 
inundation  or  "  Deluge,"  from  which  escaped  seven 
giants— one  of  whom  went  to  Cholula  and  built  a 
memorial  hill  in  the  shape  of  a  pyramid.  The  gods 
were  wrathful  at  this  presumptuous  attempt  to  reach 
the  clouds  of  their  habitation,  and  hurled  fire  from 
heaven,  which  destroyed  and  dispersed  the  workmen, 
and  the  work  ceased.  It  is  unnecessary  to  point  the 
resemblance  of  this  tradition  to  the  narrative  of 
Genesis. 

This  monument  was  afterwards  dedicated  to 
Quetzalcoatl.  He  was  the  benefactor — the  Saturn — 
of  the  early  Mexicans.  He  was  noble  of  figure, 


CHOLULA.  ID/ 

wise  and  pure  of  character.  He  introduced  law 
and  order.  He  promoted  industry  and  art.  In  his 
reign  agriculture  flourished,  and  wealth  prevailed. 
"  The  corn  grew  so  strong  that  a  single  ear  was  a 
load  for  a  man."  Luscious  fruits  perfumed  the  air 
and  satisfied  the  sense,  and  countless  birds  of  song 
and  beauty  charmed  the  soul. 

It  was  a  time  too  fair  to  last  The  gods  were 
jealous,  perhaps.  They  desired  to  drive  him  from 
Tula,  where  sat  his  throne.  He  was  offered  a 
beverage  of  immortality,  which  he  readily  drank — 
(as  who  would  not  ?  )  He  was  then  tempted  to  wan- 
der vaguely  away  from  his  kingdom.  He  came  to 
Cholula,  where  they  compelled  him  to  become  their 
king,  and  where  he  sustained  his  lofty  character  of 
wisdom,  justice  and  humanity. 

But  the  spell  was  upon  him;  his  fair,  visionary 
kingdom  of  Tlapalla  beckoned  him  ever  on.  At  last 
he  arrives  at  the  borders  of  the  bright,  mysterious 
sea.  He  dismisses  his  noble  and  virtuous  attendants, 
bidding  them  to  comfort  his  subject  Cholulans,  and 
to  assure  them  of  his  happy  and  hopeful  return. 
And  so  he  disappears  from  human  view — like  our 


108  MEXICO  AS  IT  IS. 

own  Indian  Hiawatha — vanishing  into  the  dimness 
of  the  undiscovered  waters,  or  better  still,  shall  we  not 
reverently  say,  like  unto  some  Son  of  Man  and  God, 
who  hath  ascended  from  the  race  He  hath  taught  and 
redeemed,  that  He  may  return  one  day  to  comfort 
and  compensate  all  righteousness  !  For  the  Cholulans 
were  disconsolate  over  Quetzalcoatl's  departure. 
They  made  him  their  tutelary  god,  and  this  great 
pyramid  we  have  just  visited  —  crowned  with  a 
majestic  temple — became  the  principal  seat  of  his 
worship.  He  was  "  the  god  of  the  air."  His  sym- 
bol was  a  feathered  serpent,  with  what  particular 
reference  is  not  known.  His  festivals  became  the 
great  days  of  Mexico,  his  priesthood  those  of 
greatest  influence.  Their  austerities  were  remark- 
able. "  Every  fourth  or  divine  year  these  festivals 
were  preceded  by  a  rigid  fast  cf  eighty  days  !" 

And  the  Mexicans  never  gave  up  looking  for  his 
blessed  return.  Its  hope  filled  the  faith  and  heart 
of  their  religion.  When  Cortes  and  his  invincible 
band  of  adventurers  landed  on  their  coast,  and  the 
story  flew  on  fleetest  wings  to  the  grand  capital  that 
the  fair-haired  and  mighty  strangers  had  arrived, 


CHOLULA.  109 

speaking  an  unknown  tongue,  using  unknown  weap- 
ons, mounting  on  unknown  beasts,  leaving  behind 
them  in  the  obedient  waters  unknown  and  bird-like 
vessels,  it  brought  a  thrill  of  mingled  and  mysterious 
emotion  to  every  heart  in  faithful  and  favored 
Anahuac — from  the  rude  fisher  on  Tezcoco  to  the 
magnificent  Montezuma  on  his  throne. 

And  it  was  only  when  the  sordid,  grasping,  cruel 
prowess  of  the  Spaniards  had  overturned  all  hope 
and  hospitality  before  it,  and  utterly  precluded  the 
possibility  of  peacefully  winning  these  far  from 
unsusceptible  peoples  to  the  gentle  and  genial 
religion  of  the  Christ,  that  we  see  these  mixed 
emotions  all  turned  into  bitterest — nay,  let  us  call  it 
patriotic  hate — yet  not  before  they  had  undermined 
the  courage  of  the  Aztec  King,  and  prepared  the 
way  for  the  divided  councils  and  desperate  decisions, 
which  themselves  sealed  the  doom  of  the  mightiest 
heathen  empire  the  American  continent  has  known  ! 

Reluctantly  leaving  this  fascinating  subject,  so 
intimately  connected  with  the  grand  monument  we 
have  been  studying,  let  us  now  descend  to  see  what 


HO  MEXICO    AS  IT  IS. 

else  of  interest  the  modern  Cholula  presents  to  the 
tourist  traveller. 

Near  the  base  of  the  Pyramid  we  entered  a  rude 
shop  to  ask  for  a  drink  of  water,  and  were  surprised 
to  find  behind  the  counter 'a  woman  of  the  people — 
a  full-blooded  Indian — presenting  one  of  the  most 
perfect  types  of  beauty  it  was  ever  our  plea- 
sure to  behold.  The  natives  are  usually  too  toil- 
worn  to  be  fine-looking;  the  men  appear  strong, 
patient,  and  docile,  the  women  seem  to  fade  early 
beneath  the  exhausting  influences  of  climate  and 
care;  but  here  was  a  young  creature  of  a  love- 
liness that  any  land  would  be  proud  to  possess, 
and  a  Raphael  would  be  privileged  to  paint.  The 
curious  old  Aztec  vase,  purchased  from  her  graceful 
poverty,  and  now  upon  a  book-case  in  my  study,  re- 
mains a  souvenir  of  admiring  homage  to  God's  fairest 
handiwork. 

On  one  side  of  the  large  public  square  of  the 
dilapidated  old  town  stands  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able churches  in  the  whole  country.  We  have  not 
met  with  any  written  description  of  it,  but  so  far  as 
we  could  learn,  it  was  built  by  Cortes,  and  would  seem 


CHOLULA.  HI 

to  have  been  suggested  to  him  or  to  his  companions 
by  the  Mosque  Cathedral  of  Cordova. 

The  exterior  effect  is  very  striking,  with  its  many 
small  domes,  and  heavy  blank  walls,  to  which  the 
appearance  of  a  fortress  is  added  by  medieval  bat- 
tlements, as  also  by  the  bare  surrounding  and 
strongly  walled  enclosure.  The  church,  by  rough 
measurement,  is  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
square,  with  comparatively  low  ceiling,  which  is  re- 
lieved by  forty-nine  small  domes,  decorated  with 
such  singular  devices  as  eyes,  crescents,  etc.,  etc. 
This  interior  is  broken  up  by  nearly  fifty  short  col- 
umns. At  one  side  is  a  platform  chancel,  and  the 
high  altar.  There  are  a  few  small  side-chapels,  a 

o 

rare  old  font  and  pulpit,  and  some  interesting  odds 
and  ends  of  church  furniture — the  whole  forming  an 
ecclesiastical  relic  and  picture  of  the  past  altogether 
unique,  that  cannot  be  matched,  we  venture  to  say, 
in  all  America. 

The  sad  feature  of  the  scene,  was  the  apparent  de- 
c^rtinn  nnrl  ppglpf*  nf  what,  to  our  thinking,  should 
form  one  of  the  proudest  historical  monuments  in 
Mexico. 


112  MEXICO  AS   IT  IS. 

Our  examination  of  this  church  completed  what 
was  of  special  interest  in  Cholula,  though  the  faithful 
Cholulans  themselves  seemed  to  be  having  a  good 
time  that  day,  in  the  observance  of  one  of  the  in- 
numerable Church  Festas — principally  expressed  to 
our  ears  by  the  discharge  of  artillery,  but  much  more 
detrimental  to  the  peace  of  mind  of  sundry  faithless 
curs,  who  at  each  salvo  beat  an  absurdly  precipitate 
retreat. 

As  we  drove  home  in  the  declining  day,  and  saw 
the  gorgeous  sunset  investing  majestic  Popocatepetl, 
and  more  gently  lingering  on  the  white  brow  of 
nearer  Malinche,  and  then  the  crescent  moon  emerg- 
ing to  lend  her  slender,  silver  radiance  to  the  eternal 
snows,  with  a  gleam  of  mystic  sentiment  far  down 
into  the  ever  verdant  valleys — we  could  not  but  feel 
that  our  day  of  tourist  explorations  had  been  only 
piquant  in  its  peril  and  perfect  in  its  satisfaction. 


XII. 

HOW   WE  TRIED  TO  GET  TO   XALAPA. 

EARLY  the  next  morning  we  bade  a  fond  adieu 
to  dear  old  "  Puebla  of  the  Angels,"  and  suc- 
ceeded without  mishap  in  getting  past  the  threat- 
ened junction  of  Apizaco ;  and  not  long  after,  were 
gliding  down  the  grand  sinuosities  and  sublime  defiles 
of  the  great  mountain  railway.  I  think  we  enjoyed 
even  more  the  descent,  for  the  reason  of  greater 
facility  in  observation.  Surety  nothing  could  be 
finer  than  those  views  into  the  infinite  tropical  dis- 
tance, and  all  the  more  striking,  indeed,  from  the 
wonderful  transitions,  one  moment  rushing  through 
a  dark  and  devious  defile,  then  bursting  out  into  a 
vision  of  Paradise — sweet,  smiling  plains,  time-hued 
old  towers,  and  everywhere — on  city,  mount  and 
valley,  the  exquisite  play  of  light  and  shade,  a  very 
dream  of  beauty — to  be  awakened  the  next  moment 


114  MEXICO    AS   IT  IS. 

by  a  cautious  creeping  over  some  tremendous,  thrill- 
ing iron  span,  making  you  suddenly  to  realize  that 
after  all,  the  path  to  that  earthly  paradise  might 
easily  become  a  "facilis  descensus  Averni !" 

Then  came  the  burning  glory  of  the  Tierra  Caliente 
— glowing  with  ever  summer  heat,  and  only  a  little 
relieved  as  we  neared  Vera  Cruz  by  one  of  the 
weirdest  thunder  storms  we  had  ever  witnessed. 
The  sheet- lightning  fairly  lit  up  the  darkly-laden 
heavens  and  sympathizing  earth  into  a  broad  and 
burnished  vividness  that  seemed  as  if  it  might  have 
been  from  the  charging  cohorts  of  Heaven. 

The  heat  was  intense  in  Vera  Cruz.  We  had 
several  days  to  wait  for  our  steamer.  In  fact,  the 
threatening  aspect  of  political  affairs  had  led  us  to 
hasten  somewhat  to  the  coast,  or  at  least  to  get 
away  from  the  great  central  railway,  which  in  all 
revolutions  is  likely  to  be  the  main  point  of  attack. 

We  had  heard  so  much  of  Xalapa — an  old  city 
about  eighty  miles  in  the  mountainous  interior  from 
Vera  Cruz  —  of  its  internal  interest,  its  peerless 
environs — so  fair  and  fertile,  that  some  thirty  or  forty 
years  ago,  it  is  said,  an  English  traveller  arrived 


HOW   WE  TRIED    TO    GET    TO    XALAPA.       115 

there  to  pass  a  night,  and  became  so  fascinated  that 
he  never  left  it  afterwards.  We  had  heard  so  much 
of  all  this,  and  the  weather  was  so  abominably  hot, 
and  our  old  friend,  the  French  landlady,  still  so  vil- 
lanous,  that  we  would  not  even  take  a  full  night's 
rest  by  the  sea,  but  at  a  fearfully  early  hour  of  the 
following  day,  were  up  and  off  again — and,  let  it  be 
recorded  to  our  credit,  all  as  amiable  as  ever ! 

We  retraced  our  way  by  steam  for  about  fifteen 
miles,  and  then  began  one  of  the  oddest  modes  of 
travel  it  has  been  our  fortune  to  try.  Have  you  ever 
heard  of  a  mule- way,  or  rather  of  a  mule  railway  ? 
The  only  full  opportunity  of  enjoying  one  is,  we 
believe,  between  Vera  Cruz  and  Xalapa.  The  track 
is  laid  the  whole  distance,  and  the  ultimate  purpose  is 
to  employ  steam  throughout ;  but  meanwhile  a  sturdy 
team  of  mules  do  the  business  with  entire  satisfaction — 
i.  e.,  if  you  have  no  objection  to  passing  most  of  a 
day  in  one  of  the  loveliest  countries  GOD  ever  made. 

Thanks  to  the  never-failing  courtesy  of  the  Rail- 
way Company,  a  special  car — brand-new  and  open 
all  around,  thus  affording  a  perfect  view  of  every- 
thing— was  placed  at  our  disposal ;  the  manager  of 


Il6  MEXICO  AS  IT  IS. 

the  road — a  young  and  genial  American — was  de- 
tailed to  escort  us,  and  soon  we  were  rolling  smoothly 
along  behind  six  mules  at  full  run,  which  were 
changed  at  intervals ;  and  so  we  had  old-fashioned 
post-chaising,  with  all  the  modern  improvements. 

Words  would  fail  to  tell  the  glory  of  nature  through 
which  we  were  passing.  We  had  already  seen  much 
of  it,  but  at  a  distance,  whirled  through  it  by  impa- 
tient steam  ;  now  we  were  brought  face  to  face — aye, 
hand  to  hand  with  Madra  Natura  in  all  her  wealth 
and  luxury  of  grace ;  and  to  say  that  we  fell  over  head 
and  ears  in  love  with  her  would  be  but  mild  expres- 
sion for  our  abiding  emotions.  We  were  passing 
through  the  Eden  of  her  loveliness,  and  never  was 
earthly  charm  more  sweet  than  that  of  her  caressing 
embraces.  It  was  the  true  Tierra  Caliente — the  land 
of  tropic  triumph,  burning  beauty,  passionate  exhilar- 
ations ! — a  land  which,  again  we  say  it,  cannot  be 
described  even  by  poet's  pen,  because  it  shows  the 
very  hand  and  heart  of  Creative  Love — it  is  His  age- 
less Revelation ! 

From   the  commonest  growth  at  our  feet  to  the 
arching  glory  far  above — Heaven's  brightest  carpet- 


HOW  WE   TRIED   TO    GET   TO  XALAPA.         117 

ing  all  around,  and  springing  from  it  in  every  form 
and  hue  the  unstinted  and  unstinting  life  of  nature, 
great,  gorgeous  blossoms,  rankly  richest  foliage, 
lusciously  heavy  fruits — a  bewildering  mixture  of  all 
vegetable  mystery  and  magical  exuberance;  for 
names  were  nothing — our  intelligent  and  indefatigable 
guide  could  not  begin  to  keep  pace  with  our 
questioning,  and  it  hardly  mattered — the  strangely 
aromatic  terms  passed  dreamily  from  ear  to  ear,  and 
were  soon  lost  again  in  the  scented  distance.  Only 
did  we  well  remember  and  gladly  recognize  our  most 
typical  friend  the  palm— no  longer  the  stunted 
apology  of  poor  Atlantic  or  Italian  coast,  but  a 
creature  of  plentiful  and  proudest  prime. 

And  everywhere  within,  throughout  this  world  of 
glory,  moved  an  equal  wealth  and  wonder  of  anima- 
tion— birds  of  paradisaical  hue  and  song,  glittering 
insects  and  great  palpitating  lizards,  large  as  your 
arm,  basking  by  the  wayside  in  the  moist  intensity 
of  the  tropic  day — will  you  wonder,  considerate 
reader,  at  our  disinclination  to  attempt  description 
of  such  a  scene  and  experience,  and  will  you  blame 
us  for  daring  to  describe  thus  much  ? 


Il8  MEXICO    AS  IT  IS. 

Contrary  to  all  our  preconceived  ideas,  our 
manager-friend  informed  us  that  this  luxuriant  and 
often  swampy  region  was  not  an  unhealthy  one  ;  so, 
at  least,  he,  in  his  several  years  residence  and  frequent 
hunting  throughout  it,  had  found.  Of  course  it  is  not 
unwholesome  to  the  natives,  and  we  fancy  almost 
any  one  could  live  there,  in  temperance,  and  a  will- 
ingness to  have  the  acclimating  fever. 

The  country  is  full  of  choice  game,  and  very  fer- 
tile. Our  friend  told  us  of  one  immense  hacienda, 
many  leagues  in  extent,  and  stocked  with  many 
thousand  brood  mares.  We  passed  near  to  a  palatial 
mansion  which  had  once  been  the  residence  of  Santa 
Anna  in  his  days  of  wealth  and  power,  now  much 
neglected,  but  still  fascinating  in  its  site  by  the  beau- 
tiful Antigua  river,  and  amid  its  tropical  groves  and 
gardens. 

The  villages  through  which  our  journey  lay  were 
few  in  number  and  insignificant  in  appearance,  evi- 
dently inhabited  by  a  poor,  peasant,  aboriginal  popu- 
lation. We  arrived  at  the  half-way  station  (in  time, 
not  in  distance,  for  the  'ascent  begins  shortly  after 
leaving  here)  before  noon,  and  found  it  to  consist 


HOW  WE   TRIED   TO   GET   TO   XALAPA.         119 

of  two  or  three  houses,  stables,  etc.,  dignified  by  the 
poetical  name  of  Rinconaro.  The  temperature  was 
oppressive  ;  we  were  already  fatigued  and  half- fam- 
ished, and  expecting  little  in  the  way  of  refreshment, 
imagine  our  surprise  and  delight  at  rinding  a  clean, 
cool  room,  spotless  table-service  and  a  delicious  re- 
past, under  the  cordial  superintendence  of  a  stray 
Frenchman,  who  had  worthily  brought  the  genius  of 
his  nation  to  bear  upon  the  perfect  profusion  of  the  land. 
So  far  all  was  well — all  was  more  than  well — our 
morning  dream  had  been  nothing  but  delight,  too 
smooth,  you  will  say,  to  last  in.  such  a  land  and  in 
such  times. 

We  had  fortunately  finished  our  repast,  when  our 
kind  manager-friend  entered  the  room,  his  face 
clouded  with  anxiety,  and  holding  a  mysterious  dis- 
patch in  his  hand.  We  should  first  mention,  how- 
ever, that  he  had  before  remarked  upon  the 
strangeness  of  the  down  train  from  Xalapa  not 
having  arrived — a  most  unusual  occurrence,  he  said  ; 
he  had  hardly  ever  known  it  to  happen  in  his  years 
of  managing  experience.  We  could  not  proceed 
until  its  arrival,  and  so  he  had  telegraphed  on  to 


120  MEXICO    AS   IT   IS. 

know  the  cause  of  detention.  The  reply  came 
couched  in  such  ambiguous  terms,  that  he  feared 
mischief  was  brewing  somewhere.  We  were  told  by 
the  dispatch  that  a  bridge  was  down  near  Xalapa, 
but  to  proceed  at  once  without  apprehension,  etc.,  etc. 

"  Now,"  said  Mr.  T.,  "  in  my  opinion  this  is  a  false 
statement.  That  bridge  is  not  down ;  or  if  down,  it 
never  became  so  by  fair  means.  Something  is 
wrong,  and  with  the  responsibility  of  your  safety 
upon  my  shoulders,  I  can  only  say,  I  fear  it  is  the 
Revolution.  I  will  proceed  with  you,  if  you  like, 
but  you  must  decide  for  yourselves ;  a  car  is  at  your 
disposal,  if  you  conclude  to  return  to  Vera  Cruz." 

Here  was  a  dilemma  for  a  peaceable  party  of 
travellers,  inoffensively  longing  for  another  look  at 
the  Mexican  hills,  another  day  or  two  among  their 
contrasting  charms.  Shall  we  go  on,  with  the  risk 
of  robbery  'and  outrage,  such  as  are  common  to 
Mexican  life  and  travel,  where  one  of  the  worst 
possibilities  is  the  being  reduced  to  a  primeval 
attire — or  rather  a  primeval  absence  of  the  same — 
under  far  from  primeval  conditions,  or  shall  we  act 
according  to  the  better  part  of  valor  ? 


HOW   WE  TRIED   TO   GET   TO   XALAPA.        121 

Under  the  circumstances,  and  finding  further  dis- 
patches only  deepened  the  mystery  and  increased 
the  apprehensions  of  our  experienced  friend,  who 
himself,  however,  after  concealing  his  trusts,  deemed 
it  his  duty  to  continue  his  route — with  much  regret 
we  decided  to  return  to  our  point  of  morning 
departure.  •  . 

And  now  succeeded  the  anxiety  of  safe  return. 
There  seemed  little  doubt  that  the  Revolution  had 
taken  possession  of  Xalapa,  was  anxious  to  get 
possession  of  the  mails,  etc.,  on  our  train,  and  might 
telegraph  back  to  some  ruffianly  crew  to  stop  and 
secure  us  before  we  could  reach  Vera  Cruz  again. 

It  was  an  exciting  drive.  Our  native  driver  was 
himself  aroused,  and  had  evidently  increased  his 
emotions  by  internal  application.  His  whip  and 
voice  alike  lashed  through  the  sultry  tropic  air,  and 
kept  our  half- wild  beasts  at  a  steaming  run.  A  num- 
ber of  peasant  people  had  entered  our  car,  and  no 
one  inspired  us  with  much  confidence  but  a  poor 
foreigner,  one  of  the  employes  of  the  line,  who 
seemed  equally  anxious  to  reach  a  place  of  safety — 
so  sad  had  been  his  experience  in  previous  political 


122  MEXICO   AS   IT   IS. 

upheavals  of  this  unhappy  land.  Those  of  our  party 
who  were  armed  kept  one  hand  ready,  and  all 
eyes  that  appreciated  our  peril  were  scanning  the 
wayside  swamps  and  forests,  expecting  every 
minute  to  see  emerging  from  their  covert  a  band  of 
operatic-looking  individuals,  who  would  relieve  us 
of  all  further  trouble  in  present  worldly  posses- 
sions. 

But,  thank  God !  our  fears  were  needless,  though 
it  was  not  till  we  reached  Vera  Cruz  that  night,  and 
indeed  not  fully  till  a  day  or  two  later,  that  we  learned 
of  our  real  escape  from,  at  the  very  least,  a  consider- 
able annoyance.  It  was  all  true  to  the  letter — accord- 
ing to  the  apprehensions  of  our  sagacious  friend.  The 
Revolutionists  had  taken  possession  that  morning  of 
Xalapa,  after  a  slight  struggle ;  had  sought  to  mislead 
us  by  false  dispatches,  but  probably  had  not  time  to 
arrange  for  our  capture — and  thus  we  did  not  get  to 
Xalapa.  But  do  not  be  discouraged,  friend  reader ; 
if  you  can  go  no  farther,  you  will  be  more  than  re- 
paid by  every  step  of  the  "  Caliente  "  way  to  refresh- 
ing Rinconaro. 

Our   Mexican   notes  are  about  finished;  our  few 


HOW   WE   TRIED    TO    GET    TO    XALAPA.       123 

more  days  in  the  country  are  days  of  waiting — 
waiting  for  the  inevitable  "  Norther  "  to  subside,  and 
allow  our  steamer  to  depart.  This  waiting  was 
not  altogether  uncomfortable,  though  disagreeable, 
from  the  bad  drainage  and  frequent  sand-storms  of 
the  city.  Let  no  one  tarry  in  its  precincts  longer 
than  absolutely  necessary ;  let  him  rather  remain  on 
the  steamer,  if  possible  ;  for  the  fever-fiend,  we  fancy, 
is  never  entirely  idle  in  Vera  Cruz. 

At  last  we  were  enabled  to  steam  away,  and  after 
the  same  wearisome  stoppages  at  Mexican  ports,  set 
our  prow  and  faces  northward,  only  to  encounter 
another  terrible  "  Norther,"  which  struck  us  one  night 
like  a  broadside  of  bombs,  and  kept  the  sea,  and  our 
poor,  but  staunch  little  boat  in  an  agony  for  twelve 
hours  or  more — one  of  those  experiences  from  which 
you  emerge  with  heart  of  subdued  gratitude  and 
never-ceasing  wonder  at  the  fascinated  choice  of 
those  brother-beings,  whose  life  is  to  '  go  down  to  the 
sea  in  ships  and  to  do  business  in  great  waters.' 

If  ever  there  was  a  motley  crowd,  of  every  social  hue, 
from  verge  to  verge,  it  was  our  passenger-list.  Our 
circumscribed  deck  was  a  real  stage,  and  on  it  at  all 


I24  MEXICO   AS  IT  IS. 

hours  paced  and  paraded  the  players.  Not  sony 
were  some  of  us  to  set  foot  again  upon  the  soil  and 
scope  of  larger  acting  and  action,  where,  to  say  the 
least,  there  is  no  need  of  constant  uncongenial  jost- 
ling. 


MANUEL  AGUAS. 


XIII. 

THE  CHURCH   IN   MEXICO. 
"  Far  away 


Tuhidthiton  led  forth  the  Aztecas, 
To  spread  in  other  lands  Mexitlis'  name, 
And  rear  a  mightier  empire,  and  set  up 
,  Again  their  foul  idolatry  ;  till  Heaven, 

Making  blind  zeal  and  bloody  avarice 
Its  ministers  of  vengeance,  sent  among  them 
The  heroic  Spaniards'  unrelenting  sword." 

Southey's  Madoc. 

THE    Christian    traveller    in    Mexico   will   very 
naturally  wish  to  know  something  about  the 
religious  life  of  the  country,  convinced  as  he  will 
very  soon  become   that   its   only  hope   lies   in   the 
supremacy  of  a  purer  faith  and  practice. 

He  observes  so  much  of  ignorance  and  degrada- 
tion in  the  dominant  Church  of  Rome,  the  sad 
inheritance  of  a  semi-barbarous  conquest,  which  in- 
deed was  only  just  gilded  by  a  pretense  of  conversion 
to  the  creed  of  a  Spanish  Philip  and  a  Roman  Leo. 


128  MEXICO  AS  IT   IS. 

The  faith  of  "the  Conquerors"  was  little  better 
than  a  fetichism,  a  matter  of  miraculous  madonnas 
and  superstitious  observances,  with  very  little  of 
Christianity's  grace  and  truth  visible  in  walk  and 
conversation.  Conversion  consisted  in  persuasion  or 
compulsion  to  Holy  Baptism,  often  administered  to 
a  multitude  of  ignorant  savages  at  a  time.  With 
the  exception  of  a  few  great  and  godly  men,  like 
Las  Casas,  there  have  been  very  few  of  the  Spanish 
Church  either  capable  or  willing  to  instruct  and 
elevate  the  long  servile  and  degraded  masses  of  the 
people ;  and  yet,  we  believe  there  is  no  aboriginal 
race  more  susceptible  and  prepared  to  receive  a  pure 
and  undefiled  Christianity. 

The  Church  in  Mexico  received  and  inherited 
much  of  the  worst  elements  of  what  is  perhaps  the 
worst,  the  least  spiritual  type  of  Romanism  in 
Europe.  There  has  never  been  anything  more 
darkly  complete  than  the  crushing  out  of  the  Refor- 
mation in  Spain.  Its  permission  by  a  just  and 
merciful  God  is  one  of  the  mysteries  of  history.  The 
names  of  Ponce  de  la  Fuente,  Don  Carlos  de  Seso, 
and  Marina  Guevera  come  to  us  from  the  mar- 


THE    CHURCH   IN   MEXICO.  1 29 

tyr  past  with  a  fragrance  of  sanctity  as  excel- 
lent, as  is  the  memory  of  Torquemada  and  Valdes 
synonymous  with  all  that  is  cruelly  infamous. 
The  great  crime  in  inquisitorial  eyes  was  the  denial 
of  "Roman"  to  the  Church's  "Holy,  Catholic" 
name. 

A  nation,  a  Church  can  give  no  more,  no  better 
than  she  has  and  is,  and  thus  we  have  the  clue  to 
Mexico's  misery.  The  Church  of  Mexico  fattened 
upon  the  land.  She  became  wealthy  and  overween- 
ing—  like  her  great  earthly  head  and  centre,  the 
enemy  to  all  progress  and  enlightenment.  The 
State,  in  self-defence,  disestablished  her,  but  perhaps 
only  making  her  more  subtly  dangerous.  The  crisis 
in  the  religious  history  of  .Mexico  seems  to  have 
occurred  during  the  troublous  times  of  the  French 
attempt  to  seat  the  unfortunate  Maximilian  upon  an 
imperial  throne. 

There  must  have  been  previously  a  movement  of 
the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  hearts  of  the  Mexican  people, 
but  the  introduction  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  other 
inciting  influences  in  those  all  upheaving  days,  seems 
to  have  first  determined  a  renewing  manifestation  in. 
Q 


I3O  MEXICO    AS  IT  IS. 

the  attempt  of  a  priest  named  Francisco  Aguilar  to 
establish  a  reformed  congregation.  His  ideas  were 
necessarily  somewhat  crude  and  vague,  but  still 
strongly  shaped  in  the  direction  of  truly  Catholic  and 
Apostolic  faith  and  service. 

To  strip  the  Church  of  her  manifold  accretions,  to 
give  her  a  worship  understood  of  the  people,  and  to 
afford  her  individual  members  the  grace  of  pure 
Sacraments  and  the  comfort  of  Holy  Scripture,  seems 
to  have  been  the  aim  of  this  really  remarkable  man, 
for  whom,  however,  as  might  be  expected,  the  burden 
soon  became  too  heavy;  and  when  in  two  short  years, 
he  laid  it  down,  let  us  trust,  to  his  own  eternal  rest,  it 
had  already  become  a  cross,  cruelly  defined,  and 
awaiting  the  next  hand  of  faith  that  should  be  strong 
enough  to  take  it  up. 

His  little  flock  must  not  be  left  to  perish,  but  who 
shall  be  found  competent  to  guide  them,  by  GOD'S 
grace,  amid  so  many  perils  ?  No  one  had  yet  ap- 
peared by  Aguilar's  side.  His  battle  had  been  fought 
single-handed.  There  is  something  in  the  wonderful 
discipline,  or  rather  terrorism  of  Rome,  which  has 
hitherto  been  the  greatest  obstacle  to  anything  like 


THE  CHURCH  IN  MEXICO.  131 

national  Church  reform,  and  which  leaves  to-day  the 
Old  Catholic  movement  in  Europe  as  wonderfully 
strong  in  quality  as  it  is  woefully  weak  in  quantity. 

Providentially  there  was  at  this  time  in  New 
York  a  presbyter  of  the  American  Church,  min- 
istering to  a  Spanish  congregation,  to  whom 
the  appeal  was  made  in  behalf  of  this  little, 
distant  flock,  and  who  felt  it  was  a  call  of  GOD  too 
plain  and  potent  to  be  disregarded.  Taking  his  life 
in  his  hand,  Dr.  Henry  Chauncey  Riley,  went  in 
1869  to  Mexico,  and  set  himself  zealously  to  carry 
on  the  work  of  organizing  a  Reformed  Church  in 
that  "  priest-ridden  "  country. 

His  labors  were  blessed.  He  succeeded  in  obtain- 
ing possession  of  one  of  the  principal  churches  in  the 
Capital,  and  soon  the  influence  of  the  pure  cause 
which  he  represented  began  to  make  itself  everywhere 
felt.  Its  greatest  personal  triumph  was  yet  to  come. 
The  story  of  Manuel  Aguas'  conversion  from  Roman- 
ism to  true  Catholicism,  forms  one  of  the  romantic 
and  immortal  episodes,  which  illumine  the  pages 
of  Church  History.  He  had  been  the  champion  of 
Mexican  Ultramontanism,  against  what  he  had  deemed 


132  MEXICO    AS   IT   IS. 

a  mere  heretical,  Protestant  aggression  ;  but  a  candid 
examination  of  the  adversary's  position  led  to  his  en- 
lightenment, and  the  morning  of  the  great  field-day, 
on  which  he  was  to  demolish,  before  the  assembled 
elite  of  the  Capital,  the  "  pestilent "  enemy's  assump- 
tions, found  him  instead,  like  his  prototype,  Saul  of 
Tarsus,  a  most  zealous  preacher  of  the  pure  and 
undefiled  Gospel  and  Church  of  Jesus  Christ 

And  in  this  new,  all  modifying  attitude,  he  never 
wavered.  He  had  counted  the  cost,  and  never  for 
one  moment  relinquished  his  hold  of  the  terrible  plow, 
whose  "share"  was  already — for  him  and  for  his 
few  faithful  adherents — being  re-beaten  into  a  sword 
of  social  and  every  martyrdom. 

He  became,  of  course,  an  invaluable  reinforcement 
to  the  new  Church,  and  was  very  soon  elected  its 
Bishop,  and  during  the  brief  remainder  of  his  life  he 
was  indefatigable  in  preaching,  writing,  teaching  in 
every  way,  the  truths  of  his  utter  conviction.  He 
died,  like  his  predecessor,  Aguilar,  a  martyr  to  this 
all-consuming  zeal;  but  happier  than  Aguilar,  in 
leaving  behind  him  a  small  but  competent  band  of 
fellow-workers,  who,  following  in  his  self-denying 


THE   CHURCH   IN   MEXICO.  133 

footsteps,  have  been  blessed  in  the  present  established 
and  most  promising  condition  of  the  Reformed  Church 
in  Mexico. 

The  organized  Synod  of  this  Church  sent  a  peti- 
tion to  the  House  of  Bishops  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States,  in  1874, 
praying  for  Episcopal  consecration,  and  asserting 
their  readiness  to  give  all  proper  guarantees  of  Catho- 
licity on  their  part.  This  petition  was  answered  by 
the  appointment  of  a  Commission  of  seven  Bishops, 
one  of  whom,  Bishop  Lee,  of  Delaware,  went  to 
Mexico,  in  1875,  and  ordained  several  of  the  native 
candidates  to  the  priesthood  and  diaconate,  besides 
confirming  a  large  number. 

The  Commission  is  still  in  sympathetic  and 
systematizing  relations  with  the  Mexican  Church, 
and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  before  very  long 
there  will  exist  in  Mexico  an  independent  national 
Church,  in  full  communion  with  the  Reformed 
Catholic  Church  throughout  the  world. 

In  concluding  this  brief  sketch  of  the  religious 
elements  in  the  Mexican  question,  almost  as  im- 
portant and  vexed  a  subject  to  the  United  States  as 


134  MEXICO    AS  IT  IS. 

is  the  Ultramontane  problem  to  Europe,  we  feel  we 
can  do  no  better  in  pertinent,  practical  information  and 
appeal,  than  to  repeat  some  portions  of  addresses, 
delivered  since  our  return  home  in  several  principal 
cities,  in  aid  of  our  struggling  sister  Church. 


More  than  two  thousand  miles  away — beyond  our 
own  most  Southern  lands  and  seas — there  lies  a 
country,  whose  very  name  brings  to  the  mind  visions 
of  peerless  splendor  and  romance — a  country  than 
which  Italia,  with  all  her  gift  of  beauty,  hath  no  fairer 
bloom,  and  Greece,  with  all  her  song,  no  prouder 
story  —  a  country  like  indeed  unto  that  of  which 
the  prophet  speaks,  "  a  land  of  wheat  and  barley  and 
vines  and  fig-trees  and  pomegranates — a  land  of  oil 
olive  and  honey — a  land  wherein  thou  shalt  eat 
bread  without  scarceness,  thou  shalt  not  lack  anything 
in  it" 

Or — to  speak  with  more  particularity  —  it  is  a 
country  of  every  capability  a  bountiful  GOD  can  give, 
its  borders  laved  by  tropic  seas,  its  lower  regions 
laughing  in  perpetual  summer,  and  then  by  grand 


•THE    CHURCH   IN   MEXICO.  135 

degrees  of  beauty  and  fertility  ascending  into  moun- 
tain summits,  crowned  with  the  glory  of  perpetual 
snows. 

Within  this  land  so  gifted,  lie  many  towns,  each 
one  of  which  has  been  the  seat  of  independent  power, 
as  well  as  of  marvellous  advance  in  all  the  arts  ot 
life,  until  within  the  more  recent  centuries  compelled 
to  own  the  sway  of  mighty  Anahuac,  and  somewhat 
later  to  exchange  the  feathery  diadem  of  Montezuma 
for  the  Vice-regal  crown  of  Cortes.  This  was  a  land, 
in  short,  of  which  all  Europe's  chivalry  was  dreaming, 
and  out  of  which  that  chivalry — with  its  blade  of 
many  stains — carved  a  golden  empire ! 

There  is  no  need  for  us  to  inquire  how  much  the 
Aztecs  lost,  or  how  little  they  gained  by  the  historic 
exchange.  We  must  set  on  the  one  side  the  bloody 
sacrifices  of  heathenism,  and  on  the  other  a  ruthless 
slavery  and  a  cruel  Inquisition.  We  may  compare 
the  Mexico  of  to-day,  forever  tossing  on  a  political 
volcano,  with  the  rude  and  rival  powers  of  Cholula, 
Tlascala  and  Tezcuco  in  the  days  of  old. 

But  for  this  we  may  indeed  be  thankful,  that 
whether  in  pretence  or  in  truth,  Christ  was  preached 


136  MEXICO   AS   IT   IS. 

by  the  Castilian  conquerors  of  Mexico,  and  through 
the  heavy  haze  of  their  errors  and  shortcomings  upon 
the  chronicling  past,  we  may  at  least  be  thankful  for 
the  bright,  immortal  name  of  a  Las  Casas ! 

Within  these  latter  days  the  light  of  all-reforming 
truth  has  dawned  on  Mexico.  Out  of  religious  despot- 
ism and  social  anarchy  has  come  forth  the  good  that 
the  GOD  of  history  and  the  Christ  of  liberty  alone 
can  bring ! 

The  universal  upheaval  of  the  age — call  it  progress 
or  reaction,  as  we  will — has  brought  to  our  so-called 
"  sister  Republic "  the  same  results,  which  meet  the 
observant  traveller's  eye  in  the  awakening  countries 
of  the  older  world — the  men  of  the  higher,  educated 
classes,  largely  infidel,  the  women  generally  bigoted, 
the  middle  and  lower  classes  somewhat  indifferent, 
but  still  in  the  main  attached  to  the  Church  from 
various  reasons  of  fear  or  favor,  while  doubtless,  very 
many  even  among  them  all  have  a  true  and  lively 
faith  in  the  eternal  verities  of  Salvation,  which  even  a 
papal  curia  cannot  altogether  conceal ! 

From  these  lower  classes,  then,  to  whom  indeed  it 
may  be  said  of  every  land,  that  life  brings  only  and 


•THE   CHURCH   IN   MEXICO.  137 

ever  the  sternest  and  saddest  realities — from  and 
among  the  lower  classes  of  the  Mexican  people  has 
the  Reformation  sprung  and  spread. 

Dissatisfied  with  husks,  they  cried  for  bread,  and 
finding  no  response  from  the  shepherds  set  over 
them,  they  appealed  to  GOD  Himself— they  have 
.  turned  to  us,  their  former  "  heretic "  brethren  and 
neighbors ;  and  thus  it  is,  Christian  friends  and  readers, 
that  we  have  the  Reforming  Church  of  Christ  in 

Mexico  asking  for  our  sympathy  and  aid  to-day. 

••Zid 

I  went  to  Mexico  as  a  tourist,  with  rather  indefinite 
ideas  as  to  what  was  going  on  there  in  the  way 
of  Church  revival,  but  with  the  hearty  intention  of 
finding  out  all  I  could  about  it  in  the  short  time  of 
my  visit. 

What  did  I  find,  then,  on  arriving  in  the  City  of 
Mexico,  and  inquiring  for  the  native  reforming 
church  ? 

I  found  a  grand  cathedral,  situated  in  the  most 
valuable  and  attractive  part  of  the  city,  the  very 
church  in  which  the  dead  conqueror  Cortes  was  laid 
in  state,  its  situation  a  means  of  influence  in  itself, 


138  MEXICO   AS  IT  IS. 

with  an  inviting  entrance  between  beds  of  blooming 
flowers  and  tropic  shrubbery,  and  an  interior  worthy 
of  any  of  our  own  metropolitan  congregations.  In 
fine,  we  may  say  that  the  possession  of  this  old 
historic  church  of  San  Francisco  alone  would  give 
character  to  any  movement. 

Notwithstanding  the  cruel  conscription  going  on 
at  the  time  of  our  visit,  which  kept  many  of  the  peo- 
ple at  home,  we  found  a  congregation  fairly  filling  the 
church,  and  worshipping  with  an  attention  and  ardor 
most  beautiful  and  edifying  to  behold.  They  were 
the  poor  and  the  lowly  of  earth — those  to  whom  and 
among  whom  the  Redeemer  first  came,  who  first 
indeed  constituted  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Christian 
Church — and  those,  whom  it  is  one  of  the  saddest 
reflections  of  our  Christian  day,  that  the  Church  of 
Christ  is  only  half  able  to  retain.  But  to  these 
devoted  hearts  it  all  seemed  a  tremendous  and 
glorious  reality.  Their  singing — the  use  of  our  own 
sweet  hymns,  such  as  "  Jerusalem  the  Golden,"  and 
"  Sun  of  my  Soul,"  translated  into  most  mellifluous 
Castilian — was  one  of  the  most  impressive  and  touch- 
ing features  of  worship  I  have  ever  met  with  in  any  land. 


THE    CHURCH   IN   MEXICO.  139 

And  now  a  word  as  to  their  clergy,  with 
several  of  whom  we  had  the  great  pleasure  of  be- 
coming intimately  acquainted.  My  heart  glows  as  it 
recalls  them  one  by  one!  Simple-hearted,  lowly- 
minded,  fervent- spirited — their  demeanor  and  charac- 
ter was  full  of  Christian  sweetness  and  gentleness  and 
chanty.  Their  Bishop  elect  is  the  type  of  what  is 
needed  in  that  peculiar  and  exacting  field — a  pure- 
blooded  Indian ;  this  would  seem  an  indispensable 
qualification  of  ministration  to  the  millions  of  native 
peasant  population,  in  whom  indeed  the  hope  of  the 
country  largely  lies  —  a  man  whose  every  look 
and  word  of  humility  and  faith  and  zeal  mark  him  as 
a  worthy  successor  to  the  poor,  yet  princely  apostles 
of  Galilee. 

And  his  small  band  of  clergy  appeared  to 
be  generally  of  the  same  tone  ;  one  of  them  has  been 
himself  a  Bishop-elect  of  the  Church  of  Rome ;  another 
has  served  as  an  army  officer,  which  should  in  itself 
suffice  to  answer  for  his  honor,  sincerity  and  loyalty, 
confirmed  as  it  is  by  his  venerable  appearance  and 
frank  devotion.  Others  of  them  are  young  men, 
almost  too  young,  it  might  seem,  for  such  thrilling 


140  MEXICO  AS  IT  IS. 

responsibilities,  but  apparently  with  an  enthusiasm 
tempered  by  discretion  and  discipline ;  one  or  two 
especially  struck  me  as  men  for  whom,  under  God's 
provident  grace,  the  most  glowing  expectations  could 
be  formed. 

Going  among  these  stranger  brethren,  with  no  claim 
indeed  but  as  a  presbyter  of  the  American  Church,  I 
could  not  but  humbly  and  happily  feel  that  my  Church 
was  honored  in  me ;  and  when  they  fell  upon  my  neck 
at  parting,  your  Christian  hearts  will  readily  under- 
stand how  my  own,  too  full  for  utterance,  could  not 
but  most  reverently  though  most  distantly  revert 
.to  that  pathetic  scene  in  early  Ephesus,  when  the 
great  Apostle,  parting  from  the  brethren  of  his  love, 
prayed  and  wept  with  them  all — "Sorrowing  most 
of  all  for  the  words  which  he  spake,  that  they  should 
see  his  face  no  more !" 

And  what  more  shall  we  say  of  them  or  of  their 
holy  work  ?  Shall  we  speak  of  their  schools,  which 
still  small,  on  account  of  adverse  social  influences, 
yet  proclaim  the  right  principles  and  intentions  of 
education  and  training  ?  Shall  we  tell  of  the  orphan- 
age, where  in  a  distant  and  secluded  part  of  the  city, 


THE   CHURCH   IN   MEXICO.  141 

alone  amid  inimical  surroundings,  a  devoted  Christian 
woman  is  cherishing  and  elevating  a  small  band  of 
orphans — poor  little  social  waifs,  with  no  one  to  care 
for  them  until  this  Church  in  her  Master's  spirit  took 
them  by  the  hand,  clothed  their  bodies  and  warmed 
their  hearts,  and  is  leading  them  gently  into  and 
along  the  way  of  life  ?  . 

Of  course  funds  are  vitally  needed  for  the 
relief  of  this  Church.  The  clergy  are  poor  men, 
who  have  sacrificed  what  little  they  had  of  tem- 
poral means  and  vocation,  as  well  as  of  social 
influence  and  interest,  in  the  cause  of  the  Master 
Christ.  Brought  up  as  we  are,  with  everything  to 
favor  pure  and  undefiled  Christianity,  it  is  almost  im- 
possible here  to  realize  how  in  that  benighted  land  a 
profession  of  Protestant  or  truly  Catholic  faith  amounts 
to  a  complete  ostracism — makes  a  social  pariah  of  a 
man.  Besides,  their  congregations,  to  their  glory,  as 
was  said  above,  as  also  to  their  claim  upon  our 
Christian  hearts,  are  the  poor  and  lowly  of  earth,  who, 
if  they  can  keep  bread  in  their  children's  mouths, 
the  wolf  from  their  own  door,  are  doing  well  ; 
and  who  can,  therefore,  do  little  for  the  support 


142  MEXICO   AS  IT  IS. 

of  those  whom  God  has  set  spiritually  over 
them. 

But  what  we  wished  particularly  to  remark  as  a 
drawback  and  qualification,  which  should  enlist  our 
earnest  sympathy  and  efforts,  is  the  general  ignorance 
and  need  of  instruction.  Belonging,  as  we  do,  to  a 
Church  which  bases  much  of  its  claim  upon  hu- 
man faith  in  the  Catholicity  of  its  Creeds,  and 
the  decency  and  order  of  its  worship,  and  committed 
as  we  are  to  our  young  Mexican  sister,  as  by  the 
grace  of  God  her  guide  and  guardian  in  the  truth,  it 
behoves  us  most  essentially  to  see  that  she  be  tho- 
roughly instructed  in  the  whole  "truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus,"  and  in  His  "  One,  Holy,  Catholic  and 
Apostolic  Church;"  that  when,  by  the  blessing  of 
God,  she  be  arrived  at  maturity  and  independence  of 
estate,  we  be  not  ashamed  to  point  to  her,  and  say, 
"  Behold  the  sister  beloved  and  fair,  whom  God  gave 
into  our  fraternal  hands,  who  is  now  the  delight  of 
her  Divine  Spouse,  and  a  joy  and  comfort  to  the 
hearts  of  men  !" 

Wherefore,  let  our  first  efforts  be  directed  towards 
the  establishment  of  theological,  of  seminary  instruc- 


THE   CHURCH   IN   MEXICO.  143 

tion  and  training.  We  must  send  them  translated 
and  truly  Catholic  publications,  those  standard  de- 
fenses of  our  Reformed  faith,  than  which  nothing  can 
form  a  better  and  brighter  weapon  for  their  present 
and  future  need,  but  only  such  weapons  of  course  as 
could  be  beaten  into  ploughshares  at  any  moment, 
knowing,  as  we  must,  that  the  only  sword  which  can 
carve  its  way  unto  the  throne  of  the  God  of  Love, 
is  that  forged  by  His  Holy  Spirit. 

And  while  speaking  of  this  essential  element  of 
love  and  peace  in  the  Christian  Church,  we  cannot 
forbear  allusion  to  the  humble  and  holy  spirit  of  our 
Mexican  brethren,  not  only  towards  those  who  with 
a  sadly  mistaken  zeal  have  seen  fit  to  persecute  them, 
even  "  for  righteousness'  sake,"  as  also  towards  those 
of  their  brethren  of  much  nearer  kinship,  who,  we 
deeply  grieve  to  think,  have,  some  of  them,  lost  sight 
oi  the  Apostolic  spirit,  and  would  apparently  resolve 
the  Apostolic  work  into  a  rival  contest  for  spiritual 
supremacy.  God  give  them  soon  a  better  mind ! 
Surely  a  labor  of  Christian  life  and  love  such  as  we 
are  fraternally  interested  in,  which  first  appealed  for 
our  own  immediate  sympathy  and  succor,  should  be 


144  MEXICO    AS  IT   IS. 

veiy  far  from  suffering  any  let  or  hindrance  from 
brethren  of  the  same  Christian  home  and  hope, 
should  never  forcibly  be  made  the  means  of  present- 
in  e  a  divided  front  to  the  wiles  and  warfare  of  the 

o 

enemy  of  mankind. 

We  have  spoken  of  the  pressing  demands  of  this 
great  mission  work  —  a  work  so  vast  that  in  sur- 

O 

veying  its  glorious  possibilities,  if  not  probabilities, 
the  Christian  eye  must  pass  through  central  and 
southern  and  tropic  zones,  till  only  arrested  by  the 
silent  seas  that  lave  the  furthest  shores  of  millions 
lying  fast  bound  in  visible  darkness  —  following  a 
light  once  grudgingly  bestowed — a  light  of  Heaven 
indeed,  but  long  hidden  in  such  dim  sanctuaries  of 
earth  that  these  same  semi-heathen  millions  have 
only  learned  to  groan  in  its  glimmer ! 

Of  such  an  infinite  work  we  have  sought  thus 
imperfectly  to  speak,  believing  that,  under  God,  this 
Church  is  called  to  one  of  the  grandest  tasks  and 
responsibilities  ever  committed  to  any  Communion. 
And  we  beg  you  to  note  this  singular,  we  may,  per- 
haps, call  it  unique  fact  in  the  history  of  Christian 
effort  Every  cent  raised,  every  dollar  given, 


THE    CHURCH   IN    MEXICO.  145 

goes  directly  to  the  Mexican   Church— goes  straight 
to  native  need,  to  native  workers  in  the  vineyard   of 
the  Lord.     We  are  not  supporting  foreign  laborers, 
who  with  all  their  faith  and  zeal,  must  still  and  ever 
find  an  almost  impassable  gulf  of  national  and  linguis- 
tic genius  between  them   and    their   infinite   object. 
All    thanks,    we    may    add,    to    the    signal   devo- 
tion   of  one,    who   in    these   self-seeking   days,    has 
done  so  much  to  remind  us  of  Apostolic  example ; 
who  laying  his  all  at  the  Master's  feet,  has  gone  forth 
to  labor   in  a  land    of  need,  for  which,   indeed,  by 
Providence  of  birth,  and  grace  of  gift,  he  seems  to 
have  been  specially  designated —  need   I  say  that   I 
am  most  admiringly  and  affectionately  alluding  to 
my   Right    Reverend   Brother  elect,  destined,  I  be- 
lieve, to  be  known  in  reverent  history  as,  under  the 
renewing  and  reviving  grace  of  Christ,  one  of  the 
founders   and   fathers  of  the    Reformed    Church    of 
Christ  in  Mexico. 


01 


APPENDIX. 


SKETCH  OF  RECENT  MEXICAN   HISTORY. 

THE  following  brief  summary  of  recent  Mexican  history 
may  be  of  interest  to  the  reader  : 
In  1821  the  Independence  of  the  country  was  declared. 
In  1825  the  first  Congress  assembled. 
In  1836  Santa  Anna  was  made  President,  and  deprived  of 

office  in  the  same  year. 
In  1838,  another  Revolution  ;  blockade  of  Vera  Cruz  by 

the   French,    who  are  driven  off  by  the  energetic 

Santa   Anna.     After  one  or  two  revolutions  he  is 

declared  Dictator,  in  1841. 
In  1843,    a^ter  another  revolution,    a   new  and   entirely 

intolerant  Constitution  is  adopted. 
In    1846,  after  several  years'  turbulent  history,   in  which 

Santa  Anna  plays  the  principal  part,  a  war  is  begun 

with  the. United  States. 
In  1848,   the  war  closes  with  Santa  Anna's   defeat,     and 

peace  is  concluded  with  the  United  States. 
In  1853,  after  several  more  revolutions,  Santa  Anna  turns 

up  again  as  Dictator,   b*t  is  obliged  to  resign  the 

next  year. 
In  1856   begins  a  strong  movement  against  the  Church, 

under   Comonfort,    who   becomes    President,    and 

effects  the  sequestration  of  church  property.      He 

is  not  long  in  power. 


148  MEXICO   AS   IT   IS. 

In  1859,  the  famous  Miramon  appears  for  a  brief  period 
as  President,  and  reappears  at  the  head  of  the 
Church  party,  in  1860,  to  make  way  the  next  year 
for  the  liberal  President,  and  afterwards  Dictator  Ju- 
arez. 

Then  came  the  French  invasion,  terminated  in  1867 
by  the  execution  of  Maximilian  and  the  undis- 
puted sway  of  Juarez,  who  at  his  death  is  succeeded 
by  Lerdo,  the  present  occupant  of  this  most  un- 
steady seat  of  power  being  Diaz. 


EXPENSE   OF   A   TRIP  TO   MEXICO. 

IHERE  are  excursion  tickets  issued  by  the  Alexandre 
Steamer  line  in  New  York,  to  Vera  Cruz  and  back,  for 
$150  ;  or  you  take  rail  to  New  Orleans  and  purchase  an 
excursion  ticket  there,  the  latter  costing  $100  in  gold. 
Or  again,  one  can  take  a  steamer  to  Havana,  and  thence 
proceed  by  a  French  Messagerie  boat,  or  an  English  mail- 
steamer  to  Vera  Cruz.  First  class  fare  from  Vera  Cruz  to 
the  City  of  Mexico,  $16.  Comfortable  lodgings  and  board 
can  be  obtained  in  the  capital  for  $2  or  $3  a  day,  from  which 
few  data  an  estimate  for  th§  whole  trip  can  easily  be  made. 

For  further  valuable  practical  information,  see  "Fer- 
guson's Anecdotical  Guide  to  Mexico,"  recently  published. 


THE  IJRKARY 

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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

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